THE 



SCRAP-BOOK: 



CONSISTING OF 



TALES AI^D ANECDOTES, 

f^iHgriiiiljiral, listnrirril, f utrintit, ®nritl, E^liginus, ml 
Irntinictttal ^yitm, 

IN PKOSE AND POETRY. 



COMPILED BY WILLIAM FIELDS. 



SECOND EDITION— REVISED AND IMPROVED. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY LIPPINGOTT, GRAMBO & CO. 

(SUCCESSORS TO GRIGG, ELLIOT & CO.) 

NO. 14 NORTH FOURTH STREET. 

1851. 



\%^^ 



Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1851, by 

WILLIAM FIELDS, 

in the Clerk's OfSce of the District Court of the United States for the District of Texas. 



STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO. 

PHILADELPHIA. 
PRINTED BY T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The rapid sale of the first edition of the Scrap-book, and 
the great demand for the work after that edition was exhausted, 
has induced the compiler to offer the public another edition, re- 
vised, re-arranged, and greatly improved. It is again sent forth, 
with an earnest desire that it may be deemed to merit, and with 
some confidence that it will meet, the favourable consideration 
of the American reader. This confidence arises mainly from 
the very flattering reception heretofore given the work, and the 
belief that the improvement in the volume now offered, both as 
respects reading-matter and mechanical execution, will be appa- 
rent to all. 

Considerable light reading, which appeared in the former 
edition, has been left out of this one, and many valuable articles, 
such as were considered likely not only to be read with interest, 
but calculated to effect the greatest good, have taken its place. 
The exciting times through which our country has lately passed 
have been prolific in eloquent appeals in favour of preserving 
our happy system of government, — our glorious Union ; several 
of these we have preserved and inserted, supposing no more 
interesting theme could be presented to the real lover of his 
country. 

Our pages are also adorned with many poetic pieces of thrill- 
ing interest. " Ji?/ Home is the World,'' — " Our Whole Ooun- 

3 



4 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

fr?/," — '■''What is that, Mother,'" — ^'Loves Imm,ortal Wreath,'' — 
"To my Mother,'" — ^'■The Texas Ranger,'" — <■<■ California," &c., 
are gems of unsurpassed beauty. 

Various notices in commendation of the Scrap-book, on its 
first appearance, might be given ; but it is not considered neces- 
sary, and is, perhaps, not proper. It has been termed " a hooh 
of elegant extracts," and such indeed it is, for we have endea- 
voured to preserve the essence of all the good things we have 
read for many years of our life. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 



The voluntary effusions of genius are often marked by a vigour 
and raciness that do not belong to more formal productions. It 
would be out of place here, to investigate the cause of this, "which 
indeed is apparent on the slightest reflection. It has been our 
object, in this publication, to rescue from oblivion, or at least to 
imbody in a form suitable for preservation, those gems of our 
occasional literature which it seemed to us desirable should not 
be forgotten. Many of the pieces contained in these pages will 
be found to possess an historical interest that entitles them to a 
better fate than usually awaits the ephemeral channels through 
which their authors modestly thought fit to communicate them to 
the public. The great drama of human life is filled with scenes 
and with characters which, though deemed too unimportant to 
figure in the grave pages of history, nevertheless possess a most 
vivid interest in their day, and never cease to command the sym- 
pathies of men, however remote in place or time. How many 
persons and events must be brought upon the theatre by the rude 
conflict of wars, that history does not, and cannot preserve ! Our 
two contests with Great Britain were as fertile in these as any of 
the unhappy disputes that have afliicted mankind. These form 
what is called the romance of history ; and, when drawn by the 
actors themselves, are scarcely less valuable, certainly not less 
interesting than those affairs which have had appropriated to them 
the name of History. What can be more moving than to behold 
how- the happiness of individuals and families, to preserve which 
is the business and end of government, is affected by the fierce 
collisions of masses ? Indeed, nothing serves so well to distin- 
guish an age or a period, as pictures of private life, drawn as it 
is influenced by public affairs. Many of these are preserved in 
this volume ; and besides, here will be found several accounts of 

important battles, written by actors in them, or by those to whom 
a2 5 



6 PEEFACE. 

actors communicated the facts, with a force and animation that 
belong alone to the writings of participants in the scenes desci-ibed. 
The pieces from Salathiel, though fancy sketches, have, never- 
theless, a title to be considered as faithful historical pictures, such 
as a writer of vivid imagination might be supposed to conceive on 
beholding the canvas of a powerful painter. 

We have preserved many tales, several of which are of sur- 
passing interest. That of Lafitte, the Pirate, may challenge 
comparison with any that this or any other country has produced. 
Its main incidents are believed to be facts ; and the kind of life 
and adventure it portrays are by no means to be looked upon as 
the creations of fancy, but as consequences of the mad persecu- 
tions with which the ambition of great nations makes them afflict 
each other. Bands of pirates and robbers seldom make their 
appearance in peaceable times, but are necessarily produced by 
the unsettling of all the usual occupations of men, occasioned by 
public commotions. Should unhallowed ambition ever sever the 
bands of the happy union which binds Americans together as a 
family of brothers, our country is destined to witness fiercer depre- 
dations of this kind than are unfolded in the pages of Mac Far- 
lane. However dissimilar, then, the pieces may be, he who reads 
with an observing spirit, will suffer the vivid strokes in the pic- 
ture of Lafitte to heighten the value of the eloquent strains in 
favour of our Union from the patriots whose speeches, on the late 
crisis in our public afiairs, our pages contain. 

Such, however, is the variety of our work, that it would be 
impossible to particularize all that it contains ; but we may be 
permitted to observe, that while we have endeavoured to consult 
the prepossessions of every class of readers, we do not wish our 
work to be considered a vain attempt to please fastidious tastes, 
but as a monument that we have feebly attempted to erect to the 
memory of those American writers, who, though they have written 
little, have written that little well. Of one thing we feel sure, 
that if our Miscellany should pass down the stream of time to a 
remote period, the historian of our Literature will acknowledge 
his obligations to us for the preservation of these first traces of 
its dawn. 



THE SCRAP-BOOK. 



LAFITTE, THE BARATAKIAN CHIEF. 

A TALE FOTJ^'DED OX FACT. 

" P. The man is a fool who surrenders himself to such unmanly, such womanish 
weakness. 

" L. Hast thou ever loved ? 
"P. Never. 

" L. Then confine thy reproaches to subjects thou canst understand. The oak 

which has bowed to the blast may again become erect and majestic; the country which 

the earthquake has desolated may again become verdant and beautiful J^ut the heart 

jfhose finest feelings have been chilled by the icy hand of misfortune ; ^yhose fondisst 

/hopes have been destroyed in their bud, never recovers from the shocK, but remains 

/ leafless, ruinous, desolate, and forsaken." Old Play. 

" May I never see the white cliffs of old England again, if I am not 
heartily glad to escape from this horrid hole \" cried, or rather muttered 
a weather-beaten, rough, hardy-looking seaman, as we seated ourselves 
under the awning of the steamboat which was to convey us, with several 
other passengers, from *he city of New Orleans, to vessels which were 
waiting for us at the English Turn. '' I am an Englishman," continued 
he, "■ and I care not who knows it — there is my home, and if I set my 
foot on that dear shore again, let me go to Davy's locker if they again 
catch me in this land of Frenchmen and Mulattoes, Spaniards and In- 
.dians, Creoles and Negroes, and the cursed, quarrelsome Americans, too : 
— if you look squint at them, you are on your beam-ends in a moment ; 
tread on their toes, bang's the word, and daylight shines through you." 

As the honest tar appeared to be in a talkative mood, I determined to 
indulge his loquacity, and replied, " My good fellow, you appear to be 
quite out of humour to-day. I should conclude that you must have been 
shamefully misused. I have lived several months among these same 
Americans, &nd have no cause to complain of any ill-treatment whatever." 

" Several months !" echoed he, with an air of astonishment ; " why, I 
had not been in port two days before I happened to tell a Kentuckiaa 
he lied, (.and, by my soul, he did,) when he gave me a broadside which 
stove in my lights, and before I could muster to quarters, I was fairly 
carried by boarding — damn him ! but it was the first time that Anson 
Humber was obliged to strike his colours to a land-lubber." 

'' I admit/' I replied, '' that these Kentuckians are not the most poiito 

7 



8 FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 

people in the world ; btit if you keep on the right side of them, you 
will find friends till the last moment." 

" May I dangle from the yard-arm this minute/' cried the irritated 
sailor, " if I was ever able to tell the larboard from the starboard side 
of these fresh-water lobsters; wear your ship which way you will, they 
always strike across the beam, and are ready for raking or boarding — ■ 
and by Nelson's right arm, (peace to his memory !) I had rather ship the 
heaviest wave of the Atlantic than have one of these madmen to deal with." 

'^ Perhaps," I replied, " you ought to blame yourself for some of the 
treatment of which you complain ; you know, when John Bull gets 
plenty of corn in his garret, he is apt to be proud and dictatorial." 

" Likely enough," said he ; " you know, too, when a sailor gets his 
^ three sheets spread to the wind,' he fears neither God, man, nor the 
devil ; all seas are clear, and he cares for neither shores, rocks, nor quick- 
sands. But what's the reason you have escaped so well ? It must be 
because you are a gentleman : no, that can't be the cause either, for 
here gentlemen shoot one another for sport." 

" But that," I answered, " is a kind of sport which I should not like; 
and the simple reason why I think there is no difficulty, is, because I 
have attended to my own affairs." 

" Perhaps so," he replied. " Yesterday morning, I got up early, and 
took a tour up the river on — what d'ye call it — the lever, lev-lev — hang 
it, let the name go." 

''The Levee, my good friend, you mean." 

" Yes, that's it — on the Levee — where I saw a boat's crew anchor a 
wagon and approach the spot where, like a rat in the hold, I was snugly 
hid behind some orange-trees. A couple of them took their stations in 
line, and I perceived, that as soon as they could iring their guns to bear, 
there was likely to be some bloodshed. Grood, thought I ; if you will 
kill each other, the more the merrier. An attempt was made to induce 
one of them to strike his colours, but they were nailed to the mast, and 
could not be taken down. The battle commenced and the first broadside 
told well. One was damaged in the rigging, but the other went down 
to the bottom completely blood-logged." 

" That was a curious affair, indeed ; what became of the rest of the 
party?" I asked. 

" Why, they made all sail for the city, and as soon as they were out 
of sight, I steered for the same port, and soon found myself safely lodged 
in my old berth," was his answer. 

During the latter part of the conversation, a person, whom I had not 
noticed before, attracted my attention; his countenance, when I was 
able to catch a glimpse of it, under the large hat, with its nodding 
plume, which covered his head and was pulled down with an evident 
intention of concealment, betrayed considerable agitation ; and while 
Anson was describing, with the carelessness and volubility of an old 
seaman, the fatal duel he had that morning witnessed, he arose from his 
seat, and with hasty and irregular movements paced the deck, but main- 
tained a steady and total silence. His form was not of that robust and 
masculine kind which denotes strength purely mechanical, but there was 



LAFITTE, THE BAEATARIAN CHIEF. 9 

a firmness in his step, a lightness in his movements, and an ease and 
gracefulness in his carriage, which indicated strength, quickness, and de- 
cision. He was well dressed, and at his side hung a sabre of the most 
formidable dimensions; a pair of pistols showed themselves from his 
belt; but as at this place all went armed, his appearance in this respect 
would not excite remark. His complexion had evidently once been fair, 
but a southern sun had browned his cheeks till few lines were left of 
that roseate hue, which, from the traces visible where his curling hair 
had shaded his temples, it was evident had once predominated. His 
features were femininely regular ; his forehead high and proudly arched, 
while beneath his eyebrows, black and waving, shone a pair of eyes, 
which, when agitated, appeared to flash lightning, and at a glance pene- 
trate the secret recesses of the heart. I confess I trembled involuntarily 
when my eyes met his, as he started to his feet, when Anson described 
his position during the duel. Brown as was his complexion, an instant 
flush passed over his countenance, and he placed his hand on the hilfc 
of the sabre in a manner which showed he was accustomed to its use. 
It was, however, as instantly dropped to his side, and he resumed his 
former position with as much indifference as though nothing had occur- 
red. A pair of whiskers of the most enormous size shaded his cheeks, 
and really met under his chin, proving the service to which he was at- 
tached, and completed the outline of the person who had so strongly 
engaged my attention, and who exhibited an appearance of coolness, 
daring, and intrepidity, which I had never before witnessed. 

While I was surveying this person, Anson, undisturbed by my inat- 
tention, had continued his chatter, and it was not until I heard the word 
pirate, that I was roused from my revery. 

" What is that about pirates V I inquired ; " was any thing said about 
them in the city V 

" Nothing," said Anson, " but that there are some of the sharks off 
the river ; and I heard one fellow swear roundly that he yesterday saw 
the piratical chief.'^ 

'' Yfhy," I replied, " did he not lodge an information against him, 
and let him receive the punishment due such a crime ?" 

''■ Ah ! that's the very question I asked the fellow myself," answered 
Anson, " and offered, besides, to assist in securing him, and taking him 
to the yard-arm, if necessary ; but the fellow said it would be as much 
as his head was worth to think of any such thing; besides, he might 
want a favour himself in that line some day or other, and it was best 
not to meddle with other folks' matters." 

'^ Well, Anson," said I, '' if they meddle with us, we must pay them 
in their own coin ; and it will not be your fault, I presume, if they do 
not receive change to the full amount." 

. " No, it will not — but they said," continued Anson, " that the chief 
of the gang killed a man yesterday, because he recog-recog-recognised, I 
think they called it — and charged the fellow with being the robber of 
his vessel and cargo. I do not mean he stabbed him in the dark, as a 
Spaniard or Frenchman would, but he told him it was false : so they 
shot at one another like gentlemen." 



10 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

The stranger again rose from his seat and walked across the deck, but 
remained silent. By this time, Anson had talked himself out of breath, 
and concluded, to take a bit of a nap on the deck; and as the stranger 
appeared to shun observation, and showed no disposition to converse, we 
dropped down the river in silence. 

Evening found us on board the fine stout brig Cleopatra, laden with 
indigo, cochineal, and a quantity of specie. She was a British vessel, 
just arrived from Santa Cruz, and employed as a cartel in exchanging 
some prisoners, by direction of the commanding officer on the West 
India station. From New Orleans she was to proceed to New York, and 
I gladly availed myself of the opportunity offered to visit my native 
region, from which business and war had so long kept me. The stranger, 
on parting with us as we went on board the Cleopatra, bade us adieu with 
the manners of a gentleman, and, while Anson Humber was cursing 
some of the rigging which had been procured at New Orleans, as a mere 
Yankee contrivance, he, in a half-suppressed tone of voice, whispered, 
*' There are rovers on the deep; should difficulty overtake you, remem- 
ber Lafitte." As he pronounced these words, he leaped into a small boat 
which floated alongside the steamboat in which we had descended the 
river, and, amidst the darkness of the evening, was soon out of sight 
among the craft which almost covered the surface of the waters. 

" By the powers !" exclaimed Anson, who had caught the tones of 
the stranger's voice, low as they were uttered, " that is the very man 
V7ho killed the other up the Levee yesterday morning : ah ! I smell 
another rat, too; he is the pirate himself," continued Anson, with a kind 
of shudder — " my head does not feel half so safely seated on my shoul- 
ders as it did ten minutes ago ; but can we not overhaul him ? I should 
like to lay alongside of him, well armed as he is." 

" If you should, Anson, brave as you are, it is my opinion you would 
find yourself in a more disagreeable predicament than when you were 
boarded by a Kentuckian. If, however, we meet with a pirate, we need 
fear nothing. A dozen such fellows as you are might enable us to ' bid 
defiance to old Neptune himself." '' You are right, sir," replied the 
sailor, " while that flutters," (pointing to the colours which streamed 
gayly in the wind,) " I will insure the safety of the Cleopatra. But I 
am so sleepy, that if the vessel was striking on breakers, or pirates were 
boarding, I could hardly keep awake." So saying, he stowed himself 
in his hammock, and in a few minutes nothing was to be heard but the 
waves of the Mississippi as they dashed against the vessel, the measured 
pace of the sentinel as he traversed the quarter-deck, or the heavy 
breathing of those of the crew, who, after a hard day's labour, were re- 
freshing themselves in the sweet embraces of sleep. 

I too threw myself on my bed, but not to sleep. A thousand cir- 
cumstances united to interest my mind and keep me wakeful. I was 
about to return to the land of my fathers, the home of my childhood. 
Home ! that endearing word ! — what tender recollections crowd upon 
the mind, when ten thousand charms of that delightful place present 
themselves in all their sweetness and freshness. Long as I had been 
separated from my native State — long as I had traversed the various re- 



LAFITTE, THE BAKATARIAN CHIEF. 11 

gions of the globe — long as it had been since half the wide world had 
interposed between me and the place where I had first tasted the plea- 
sures and pains of life, I had not forgotten a single scene around which 
memory lingered with such interest. The village spire, which threw 
its shadow over the green, where with the companions of my boyhood 
we wrestled, jumped, laughed, ran, and sported, while the ball flew rapidly 
round the circle — the gloomy churchyard, which, when a truant boy, I 
had so often shudderingly passed, when the pale moon glimmered athwart 
the marbles which crowded the sacred enclosure, and, to my aflFrighted 
imagination, appeared to people the dreary place with the tenants of 
that world from which no traveller returns — the hills I had often climbed 
— the green valleys I had often crossed — the mountains among which I 
had so often roved in pursuit of such game as they afforded, all passed 
in review ; and I even thought with rapture on the huge rock which was 
shaded with the branches of my favourite walnut-tree, and where, happy 
as the squirrel which barked over my head, I had spent many an hour, 
cracking the nuts which every wind made to rattle down around me. 

The various countries and scenes through which I had passed since 
I first became a wanderer from the land of my childhood, now that my 
imagination pictured those wanderings as drawing to a close, rose in all 
their various shades before me, and the pains and pleasures of my 
peregrinations were again presented in bold relief by the powerful effect 
of memory. Over the civilized plains of Europe and the semi-barbarous 
regions of Asia I had roved. I had seen the aurora borealis dance over 
the regions of eternal frost — the sun in vain attempt to dissolve the 
chains which an Arctic winter had formed — and I had felt its fervid 
heat where equinoctial skies shed their debilitating and pernicious 
influence. I had traversed the plains of Orinoco, and the banks of the 
La Plata : I had climbed the Cordilleras, and, with the enthusiasm of 
youth, beheld the setting sun gild those bright isles of the Pacific, 
which are sprinkled in such profusion over the surface of its broad blue 
waters, and whose inhabitants are as guileless and unsuspecting as their 
skies are bright and cloudless. I had seen the St. Lawrence rolling 
its majestic stream, collected from a thousand lakes, to the ocean — and 
I was then floating on the bosom of the father of the rivers, which, 
rising among the frozen lakes and interminable forests of the north, 
discharges its turbid waters into the Mexican Gulf, amid the orange- 
groves and sugar-plantations of the South ; while, after years of absence 
had elapsed, I was about to visit the parental roof, with the intention of 
bringing my wanderings to a close, and spending the remainder of my 
days in quiet contentment and peaceful happiness. Nor was my inter- 
view with the stranger of such mysterious character and appearance 
forgotten. His apparent connection with the pirates, who, if report 
stated correctly, frequented the islands which lie off the Mississippi, and 
whose inhuman atrocities formed a common topic of conversation at 
New Orleans, I felt to be ominous of the result of our voyage ; and 
although his words afforded a ray of hope to me, I wished I had not 
seen him. 

Such were my feelings, as I in vain wooed the god of sleep for a 



12 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

temporary olbllvion to my perturbed ideas ; and it was not until the watch 
had been changed the last time that I fell asleep, from which I did not 
wake in the morning until the vessel was already several miles on her 
voyage. When I went upon deck, the vessel was floating along the 
current between the high woods which covered both banks of the river. 
Scarcely a breath of wind was to be felt — the sails hung idly against 
the mast, and we depended on the current alone to speed us to the ocean. 

If ever there was a country over which the genius of desolation 
might be said to hold undisputed dominion, it is the region around the 
mouth of the Mississippi. Below Plaquemines it is one dreary and deso- 
late marsh, covered with cane and reeds, and sinking gradually to the 
dead level of the Grulf. For miles before we reached the mouth of the 
river, the sea could be distinctly seen from the masthead, stretching 
away on each side of the point of land formed by the continual deposi- 
tions of this mighty stream. Subject to overflow by the rise of the 
Mississippi or the inundations of the Gulf, and frequently submerged to 
the depth of six or eight feet by the autumnal tornadoes, no animals are 
to be seen ; and the cormorant, as he wings his lonely way along these 
dreary shores, finds a precious resting-place on the banks of sand-shells 
which the continual breaking of the waves has raised around these pes- 
tilential marshes. 

At last, the bar was passed, and we found ourselves on the broad 
bosom of the Gulf. The sailors, delighted with the prosperous com- 
mencement of the voyage, were all mirth and glee, and while the sails 
were filled with breezes which were hurrying us as we fondly imagined 
to New York, our port of destination, the can of grog circulated freely, 
and mirth and dance and song swept the hours rapidly away. 

Our captain was an able officer, in whom we could repose the utmost 
confidence — the subalterns were experienced and attentive — the crew 
consisted of eleven hardy, rough sons of the ocean, making in all, includ- 
ing myself and two other passengers, about twenty souls on board. 
The vessel was a new stout ship, merchant rigged, but mounting six 
guns and well provided with arms and ammunition, and all the necessary 
implements of offensive and defensive war. — The day passed away, and 
it was not until the forenoon of the second day after leaving the river, 
that any thing occurred to vary the dull monotony of a sea-voyage. 
I was sitting in my cabin, arranging some packages of papers, &c., when 
I was roused by an unusual uproar on the deck, and the boatswain's 
shrill whistle calling all hands to quarters. I speedily deposited in their 
trunks the papers I was reviewing, and hastened to the deck — before I 
reached which, however, I heard several guns fired. 

The cause of alarm was a vessel of suspicious appearance, which had 
been bearing down for some time, apparently with the intention of 
crossing the Cleopatra's course, and though the British colors were at 
the mast, (and they were within hail,) they neglected to answer the 
repeated call of Captain Bowden, who at last ordered a gun to be fired 
over them. To this no attention was paid — few men were to be seen 
on deck — and the vessel continued her course in a manner which indi- 
cated an intention to lay the vessel immediately on board our ship. At 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 13 

this moment, Captain Bowden hailed them and ordered them to keep ofF, 
or he would fire upon them ; when the decks of the vessel were instantly 
crowded with armed men, the British colours were hauled down and the 
red flag displayed, and a heavy fire of musketry opened upon us from 
the pirate, for such it was evident she was. The guns of the Cleopatra 
could be brought to bear with admirable effect, and it was soon evident 
that if they could be prevented from boarding us, the conflict would not 
long remain doubtful. 

'' Three to one, my brave lads," cried Captain Bowden, as through his 
glass he surveyed his assailants — " but were they five to one, we shall 
soon make them count one to two — sweep their deck, boys 5 we'll teach 
the rascals to keep a respectful distance." Finding his attempt to board 
unavailing, the pirate hauled out of reach of our small arms, which had 
done great execution among his crowded decks. The cessation of the 
contest was however but momentary — our assailants returned to the 
attack with fury, and, in spite of our exertions, succeeded in grappling 
our vessel. His decks exhibited a motley assemblage of ferocious-look- 
ing villains, black, white, and yellow, whose horrid imprecations and 
oaths were enough to appal the bravest heart, as, repulsed from our 
bulwarks in their attempts to board, it was only to renew the assault 
with double desperation and rage. Several of our bravest fellows had 
already fallen, when twenty or thirty of these tigers took advantage of a 
swell of the sea which brought the vessels in contact, and sprang on board 
the Cleopatra, sabre in hand. They were met by our crew with such vigour 
that scarcely had a minute elapsed before their numbers were reduced 
one half, and the remainder were wavering, when a fellow threw himself 
on board from the piratical vessel, put himself at the head of the as- 
sailants, and with shouts and imprecations urged his followers forward. 
" Hell and furies \" he cried, " shall these few men escape in this way ? 
Send them to perdition in a moment. Remember, all or nothing." Captain 
Bowden threw himself before the pirate, and a combat of the most ob- 
stinate kind ensued — terrific and desperate. A pause of some moments 
ensued among the other combatants, who suspended the work of death 
to witness a contest on which so much was depending. At last, British 
valour rose triumphant, and the pirate dropped mortally wounded upon 
the deck. 

"■ Captain Bowden for ever !" shouted Anson, as the blood spouted from 
the mouth of the marauder mixed with curses and execrations, while he 
flew to finish the work of death upon the remainder. Anson's bravery 
carried him so far that he was surrounded, and a blow was aimed at him 
which would have speedily sent him to Davy's Locker, had not a blow 
from my sabre dropped the fellow's head from his body, and his spouting 
trunk fell lifeless to the deck. 

"■ That fellow is anchored where he won't slip his cable these hundred 
years," cried Anson, as he gave the head a kick, which sent it across the 
deck ; '' but never let me taste the roast-beef of old England again, if 
I don't believe that you have wielded the sabre before now." 

"Very likely, my good fellow," I replied; "but before we think of 
roast-beef, we must rid the vessel of these villains." 
B 



14 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

"Have at tlie i-ascals, then!" shoLited Anson, as lie thrust his sword to 
the hilt through the body of a huge negro, and before he had time to 
drop, seized him and threw him into the ocean. " The sharks may have 
him and welcome, if they can stomach the black dog ; I won't have suieh 
a stinking fellow on the Cleopatra's deck," said Anson, as the waves 
splashed against the vessel from the negro's fall. Anson, however, had 
no time for soliloquizing, for he was confronted by a tall, weazel-faced 
Frenchman, whose rapid thrusts and skilful manoeuvres it required all 
his attention to meet. At last, thin as was the mark, Anson's sabre hit, 
and the Frenchman fell. 

" Cursed poor !" said Anson, as he placed his foot on the fallen foe 
and extricated his weapon; "thin as your frog-soup — a fellow might 
read the Assembly's Catechism through you." 

At this instant, another vessel, which was within a few miles at the 
commencement of the struggle, and which, as the firing commenced, had 
approached us rapidly, now neared us sufficiently to enable us to dis- 
cover, that, like the vessel with which we were already engaged, she was 
a pirate. When she was within fifty yards of us, her crew gave a shout, 
which was instantly echoed from our first assailants, and our decks were 
again crowded with a motley crew of desperadoes. " There is but one 
alternative," said Captain Bowden to me, "we must conquer or die. 
Our situation is indeed desperate, but it cannot be so bad as to be hope- 
less." So saying, he put himself at the head of the few remaining, and 
few indeed they were, for of the brave men who were so cheerful and 
happy in the morning, but six or eight were left — the rest lay mixed 
with the foes who were piled in slaughtered heaps around. Our charge 
was murderous, and the screams of the wounded and groans of the dying 
were heard above the dash of the waters, the din of the conflict, or the 
shouts of the combatants. The tide was quickly turned, and the deck 
was on the point of being speedily cleared, when a figure of the most 
athletic appeai-ance, his face covered with blood from a sabre-wound in 
his head, around which a handkerchief was tightly bound, and his 
features distorted with rage, leaped from the deck of our first opponent, 
and, with sabre in hand, rushed upon Captain Bowden. 

" Curse on your cowardice !" cried he to his followers, "shall two 
men drive you to the devil ? If you want the whole prize, fight ; if 
not, wait till you are obliged to share it with Lafitte." The conflict was 
terrible. As Anson endeavoured to parry a blow aimed at Captain Bow- 
den, the bucanier, by a sudden wheel of his sabre, severed his shoulders 
from his body — I was covered with his blood — and giving a single 
groan, he fell lifeless a-t my feet. 

"Poor fellow, thou shalt not die unrevenged," I cried, and closed 
with his murderer. 

By a violent eff'ort, and before he could save himself from my impe- 
tuous attack, I had dashed him to the deck, and was on the point of 
transfixing him with my sabre, when my feet, which were wet with 
blood, slipped, and I fell upon my antagonist. He was too much in- 
jured by the fall to be able to avail himself of the advantage my acci- 
dent had given him; but I was instantly seized by a half-dozen of 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 15 

the pirates, and should have been speedily sacrificed, had not Captain Bow- 
den thrown himself among them, and with his death-dealing sabre freed 
me from their grasp. I was hardly on my feet before the cry, " They 
are boarding us on the starboard quarter I" was heard ; and I perceived 
a fresh band of murderers were already on board. 

" If we must die, let us sell our lives at as dear a rate as possible," 
said I to Captain Bowden ; and we rushed upon the gang who were pour- 
ing upon the starboard quarter of the Cleopatra. Our swords soon 
thinned their numbers, but we were weary with slaughter, and there 
appeared no end to our toils. Four only of our crew were left, and we 
felt that we must soon sink under the overwhelming force which was 
pouring upon us from all sides. At that instant, a volley of musketry 
killed every man of our crew, who had hitherto escaped to assist us in 
stemming the torrent, and Captain Bowden and myself were surrounded 
by wretches, whose yells, oaths, and imprecations made them more re- 
semble demons than human beings. To prevent being placed in a situa- 
tion where we could not keep our enemies at bay, we retreated, or were 
rather carried by the crowd of assailants, to the corner of the vessel, 
where a pile of slain rose around us, and the deck was flooded with gore. 

" Fools, to throw away your lives in this manner," shouted a stento- 
rian voice, from a person who was seen struggling through the crowd of 
assailants; ''give them the cold lead I" And this order was obeyed by 
a volley of balls, which brought Captain Bowden to the deck, while the 
life-blood flowed in torrents from his numerous wounds. " Oh, my dear 
wife and children ! G-reat God, protect them !" was all he could utter 
before he was a lifeless corpse. The man who had given the order, and 
who, from his commanding manner, appeared to be the chief of pirates, 
had cleared his way through the assailants, and, with his drawn sabre, 
now confronted me. I rejoiced to see him, for his strength and the 
manner in which he wielded his instrument of death, convinced me that, 
if he conquered, my death could not be lingering — and if he fell, I 
should have the satisfaction of freeing the world of a monster. 

The combat was obstinate : I fought with the hopelessness of despe- 
ration, and pressed my assailant so closely, that he found himself unable 
to resist the assault, when, by an unlucky blow, my sabre was snapped in 
a dozen pieces, and I stood before him unarmed and defenceless. Baring 
my bosom, I inwardly commended myself to my Maker, and told him to 
strike ; but, to my surprise, he dropped the point of his weapon, and look- 
ing me earnestly in the face, as he wiped the blood from his brow, ex- 
claimed — " Not when unarmed ; brave men honour the brave — you are 
safe — remember Lafitte !" and I instantly recognised him as the person 
who had so strongly attracted my attention while on our voyage from 
New Orleans to the English Turn. 

" Who is this, that preaches safety ?" exclaimed a voice half choaked 
with rage, and in tones that made me shudder ; " may damnation seize 
me, if he shall not atone with his blood for the murder of my brother I" 
So saying, he fired a pistol, which would have shattered my brains, had 
not Lafitte, by an instantaneous and dexterous movement of his sabre, 
thrown his pistol into the air when the assassin was in the act of firing, 



16 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

by which means I was preserved, altliough I was so near that my face 
was severely burut by the discharge. 

" Were it not, Laborde," said Lafitte, " that I apprehend the injury 
on your head has made you raving, this act of rebellion to my authority 
would be your last. But be careful how you tempt my forbearance 
too far." 

" Cowardly miscreant I" cried Laborde, " you think to rob me of my 
victim — but should hell, with all its legions arrayed against me, appear, I 
would be revenged. This vessel is my prize ! this sabre shall keep posses- 
sion, and this sabre shall revenge my brother." 

" Touch but a hair of this man's head to injure him," answered La- 
fitte, in a voice which showed he was accustomed to command, " and 
your life shall answer for that crime." 

'• I care not for your threats — I bid defiance to your power ; this 
fellow dies — nor shall heaven or hell prevent," cried Laborde, as he 
flew at me with his sabre, but found his progress arrested by the her- 
culean strength of Lafitte. " Here," said the latter, calling some of his 
crew, " take this fellow, and secure him in his vessel till he becomes more 
rational, and his rage has time to cool, or, by the powers above, he dies ! 
— my authority shall not be trifled with." He was seized, and by main 
strength dragged towards his ship, struggling and roaring like a mad 
bull, when, by a sudden exertion, he freed his arms, plunged a dagger to 
the heart of one of those who were endeavouring to secure him, and 
before Lafitte, who was giving some orders about clearing the vessels, 
was aware of his approach, he received a blow upon his head, which 
dropped him, stunned and senseless, to the deck. Lafitte's sabre flew from 
his hand and fell at my feet, and ere Laborde could reach me, I was 
ready to receive him, as he rushed upon his devoted prey with the fury 
of a tiger. 

" Now, cursed wretch, thou shalt die ! — Lafitte himself cannot save 
thee 1" cried Laborde, his eyes flashing fire, his features distorted with 
rage, and yelling like a maniac. His ungovernable rage threw him off 
his guard, and as he made a desperate plunge at my breast, I parried 
the blow ; his heart received the point of my weapon, and he fell life- 
less upon the blood-covered deck. What would have been my fate from 
the rest of these wretches, had not Lafitte at that moment recovered his 
feet and stilled the commotion which was rising, is unknown. "Brave 
fellows," said he, " in Laborde you behold the fate of him who dares to 
disobey my orders — shun his example. Let these vessels be taken to 
Barataria, and in them we shall find treasure equal to our utmost expecta- 
tions, and which shall be equally shared by all." A shout of approba- 
tion, and " Long live Lafitte !" rent the air. The decks were cleared of 
the dead, who, as well as the badly wounded, were committed to the 
waves ; and when the setting sun threw his last rays on the topmasts of 
the Cleopatra, we were in full sail for the Island of Barataria, which I 
found was the rendezvous of the pirates who frequented the Grulf, and of 
whom Lafitte was the acknowledged chief. 

The Island of Barataria, at which we arrived on the day after the cap- 
ture of the Cleopatra, is one of those low, sunken islands^ or rather 



LAFITTE, THE BARATAEIAN CHIEF. 17 

clusters of sand-bars, whicli are so numerous in the Gulf of Mexico, 
hardly elevated above the reach of the equinoctial tornado, and, owing 
to the drought and heat, scarcely habitable for a considerable part of the 
year. Here, after considerable difficulty from intricacies of navigation, 
or unskilfulness of the pilot, we found ourselves at anchor, and Lafitte, 
accompanied by myself, immediately went on shore. A few groves of 
orange-trees, scattered peach-trees, and luxuriant vines were to be seen, 
which contrasted strongly with the few miserable huts which formed 
the establishment of these outlaws of civilization — this congregated 
mass of refuse from every nation under heaven. Plunder, assassina- 
tion, and murder were here legalized. _ Power formed the only law ; 
and every species of iniquity was here carried to an estent, of which 
no person who had not witnessed a similar den of pollution could form 
the most distant idea. In this place, which, as one of the pirates him- 
self observed, '' was a hell on earth, and well stocked with devils of all 
ranks and degrees," were to be seen a few women^ who vied with the 
men in trampling on all decency and decorum, and whose language and 
manners were a compound of all the vileness and profanity which could 
be collected from the wretches with whom thej associated. If my first 
impressions were unfavourable, subsequent observations did nothing to 
remove them. The crews of the piratical vessels were landed — and 
when a division had been made of the plunder, commenced a scene of 
intoxication, gambling, quarrelling, and murder, which still chills my 
blood to remember, and which the sabre of Lafitte was required some- 
times to subdue. He alone seemed to possess any command over his 
passions, and his voice was never heard among them in vain ; while he 
shared the danger equall}'' with the meanest sailor, whatever plunder was 
acquired was divided among them with the most scrupulous exactness. His 
influence over them was great, and their confidence in him unbounded. 

Nearly three weeks passed away, and although I suifered at no time 
any contumely or insults from the pirates, and Lafitte always treated me 
in the most respectful manner, frequently requesting me to give myself 
no uneasiness, as, for whatever loss in j^roperty I might have sustained 
on board the Cleopatra, I should receive ample compensation, still I felt 
my situation irksome in the extreme. My anxiety was observed by Lafitte. 

'' I see," said he, " you are anxious to leave us. I do not wish to de- 
tain you, for such company cannot be agreeable. Be patient a few days 
longer, and T will enable you to depart in safety. Would to heaven I 
could accompany you I" " And why can you not ?" I asked ; " what 
should make you hesitate ? Such a life as this — one unvarying round 
of danger, fatigue, and crime,- surely can possess no charms to a man 
whose very actions prove that he was born to a nobler, a better fate." 

" How," said he, " can the notorious Lafitte, the chief of pirates, the 
commander of outlaws, the companion of m.urderers, the man whose 
very name carries terror from Carthagena to Havana, mix in the society 
of civilized men ? "Would the laws be silent^? Would not the sword 
of justice leap from its scabbard at the very mention of my name ? 
And these men, these pestilential humours in the body politic, is there 
not quite as much hope that justice will be done them, when collected 
b2 2 



18 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

in one mass, as when scattered abroad, to pollute tlie fountains of society, 
and spread tbeir poisonous influence through the streams of social com- 
pact and order ? As to this mode of living, it is the danger alone that 
furnishes to me its only charms ; it is not for the sake of wealth — it is 
not for the bad eminence of being a sovereign among pirates ; but it is 
because, when once unfortunate circumstances have made a man an out- 
law, it is difficult to obtain admission into the pale of society; it is be- 
cause I would willingly set my life on the hazard of a shot to free my- 
self from misfortunes, which have followed close upon my heels ever 
since I had an existence, that you find me a pirate, a native of Bara- 
taria." 

" If I understand you, then," I replied, " you would not hesitate to 
leave this place and these wretches to their fate, if the past could be 
buried in oblivion — if your offences against the laws could be cancelled 
and your safety insured." 

" Were there none concerned but myself," he answered, " you would 
be perfectly correct ; but these men I must not forsake — their safety 
must depend on my own. As to the rest, I can easily hear your implied 
assertion of guilt without being offended ; it is scarcely possible for you 
to feel otherwise ; but it is inevitable necessity alone that compels me to 
endure my present situation ; most gladly would I quit it, but the hope 
is vain, and I must content myself to use my influence in restraining 
the atrocities of these men in the most effectual manner possible." 
'' Perhaps not," I replied. " I know the chances are indeed small, but I 
think there is one in which exists a possibility of effecting your wishes ; 
and I should be happy could I be the instrument of accomplishing them." 
" Name but the means by which it can be effected," answered he with 
earnestness, " and I shall feel myself for ever indebted to you." 

" I shall deal frankly with you," I replied : " I know not on which 
side your feelings are enlisted in the contest which is at present raging 
between the United States and Great Britain • but I shall put the ques- 
tion plainly. Would you yourself embark in the cause of America, 
and use your exertions to induce your men to do so, if an act of pardon 
and oblivion could be obtained under the Presidential seal ?" 

" Most willingly," he answered; '' let but the name of pirate be buried, 
and I pledge myself that these men will be found among the bravest 
defenders of the republic." 

" Then my best exertions shall be used in your behalf — your services 
will soon be wanted where they will produce the most effect. Great 
Britain is fitting out a powerful fleet in the West Indies, which is proba- 
bly destined against New Orleans, and, from your thorough acquaint- 
ance with the whole coast of the Gulf, and the necessity of col- 
lecting a formidable force at that point, the Government of the United 
States would no doubt listen favourably to whatever overtures might be 
made in your behalf. There is one favour, however, which I shall in- 
sist upon from you, and which you will not refuse — a relation of the 
circumstances which induced you to become what you now appear to 
have been from youth, a pirate by profession." 

" By profession," said he, smiling, " I am a pirate; but the time was 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 19 

when I was not. If it will be gratifying to you to have a knowledge 
of some of the events of my past life, I shall cheerfully comply with 
your request, although the recital will call to my mind scenes which 
have wrung my heart to its centre. 

The county of Westchester, in the State of New York, was my birth- 
place : my name is Mortimer Wilson. In what manner I acquired my 
present name, you will learn from my story : it is sufficient that to the 
pirate I am known only as Lafitte. If to be born of honest, industrious, 
and respectable parents, be an advantage, that advantage I enjoyed; — if 
to be born of parents destitute of wealth, and compelled by misfortune 
to use every exertion to support a helpless and dependent family, be a 
disadvantage, I suffered. One of my earliest impressions, and one that 
I distinctly remember, was a determination to be rich ; for my parents 
felt the evils of poverty, and riches, I imagined, furnished the means 
of gratifying our wishes, of whatever kind they might be. I had au 
uncle, living in the city of New York, a merchant of respectability, 
who, when on a visit to my father's, noticed with pleasure my playful- 
ness, repartee, and independence, and obtained my parents' consent that 
I should live with him in the city, with the intention of introducing me 
into the mercantile business, should my progress answer the expectations 
he had formed of me. I was then ten years old, and my situation with 
my uncle was as agreeable as I could wish. His family was small, an 
only son and daughter, aifectionate and lovely ; they treated me as a 
brother, while, being a few years younger than myself, I obtained a com- 
plete ascendency over them ; and I can safely say I knew no greater 
delight than witnessing and partaking in their happiness. I gave my 
uncle, by my proficiency in my studies, by my undeviating attention to 
business, and the love felt for himself and family, the highest satisfac- 
tion ; nor do I remember his giving me a single unpleasant word during 
the whole time I resided under his benevolent and hospitable roof. 

I had now reached my nineteenth year — and my uncle made me 
proposals of establishing me in the business on my own account, if I 
chose ; generously oifering to furnish me with whatever capital it might 
require — but observing, at the same time, that if it was agreeable to 
me, he should prefer having me continue the head of the establishment 
with which I was well acquainted, as it was his intention to retire from 
business, in favour of his son, and that nothing could please him better 
than to see us together advancing the interest he had laboured to ac- 
quire and promote. I assured the good man that nothing could be more 
gratifying to me than such an arrangement, and that his pleasure should 
always be a law to me ; while I flattered myself that I had secured the 
great object of my wishes, wealth and happiness. 

At this juncture, my uncle received intelligence respecting a mer- 
cantile house in Charleston, with whom he was engaged in extensive 
transactions, that made it necessary for me to repair immediately to that 
place — and no time was lost in making preparations for my departure. 
I sailed for Charleston — reached that city in safety — accomplished the 
object of my mission — transmitted an account of my success to my uncle 
through the post-o£&ce — and while waiting with impatience the sailing of 



20 FIELDS'S SCRAP-COOK. 

the vessel wLicli was to convey me to the place where my fondest wishes 
were concentrated, I was attacked by the fever of the country, which raged 
with such violence that I was entirely deprived of my reason, and, for 
vreeks, the friends with whom I resided despaired of my life. A strong 
constitution, however, enabled me to survive the attack, and, after some 
time, gleams of returning recollection and reason began to shoot across 
my bewildered imagination and memory. The first that I can distinctly 
)-ecollect was a strong impression of a beautiful form which appeared 
to be hovering around me and administering to my wants. My imagi- 
^lation had converted her into an angelic being ; and I fancied that I 
had already passed the tremendous ordeal which awaits the departed 
spirit — had been admitted into the mansions of the blessed, and that the 
form which I had beheld was my guardian angel, sent to console me 
for the troubles of the world I imagined I had left. Perhaps the sweet 
music of the piano, which, from the adjoining room, distinctly reached 
me, as fairy fingers pressed the keys, contributed to the delusion ; for 
that I conceived to be the music of heaven's minstrelsy. Returning 
reason, however, soon dispelled all these illusory dreams ; and instead 
of a disimbodied spirit, I found myself a tenant of earth, and subject 
to the mutations of time. 

I said all those illusory dreams were dispelled; but it was not 
so — there was one from which I could not, from which I did not wish 
to awake ; with steps light and noiseless as those made by fairy feet — 
eyes brilliant and sparkling, as any that ever sparkled under the delight- 
ful skies of Italy — a form which, accustomed as I had been to the 
beauties of the North, far surpassed all that my imagination had ever 
conceived — this lovely creature watched over my bed, and though to me 
utterly unknown, manifested a sympathetic feeling for my welfare, a 
solicitude for my recovery, which endeared her to me, and caused my 
heart to flutter with an emotion it had never before felt. 

Unable to lift my hand or utter a syllable without the greatest diffi- 
culty, I lay for hours viewing with rapture the angelic creature who 
hung over me, as she bathed my burning brow in the cooling fluid, or 
administered the reviving cordial ; and when I had recovered strength 
enough to make the attempt of expressing my gratitude, she placed her 
white taper fingers on my lips, and with an accent which like an electric 
shock thrilled through every fibre of my own heart, required me to 
be silent. 

''I am your physician," added she, smiling, "and if you wish restora- 
tion to health, (heaven knows how much pleasure such an event would 
give !) you must follow my directions implicitly." I moved my head 
in token of submission to her will, pressed her hand to my lips, and 
the blushing girl hastily quitted the chamber. The mystery which I 
had been unable to solve when reflecting on my fair attendant, as before 
my sickness I had never seen her, was unravelled when I had so far 
recovered as to be able to converse. I found myself under the hospita- 
ble roof of Colonel Moruton, a brother to the merchant on whose account 
I had visited Charleston, and to whose house I had been removed on 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 21 

account of its more retired character, and where I should be less liable 
to be disturbed by the noise and bustle of the city. 

My fair attendant was an only daughter of the colonel's, who had 
arrived in the city from a visit to Columbia during the first week of my 
sickness, and by devoting herself to my attendance, had voluntarily 
deprived herself of the charms which that season of the year presents 
to youth, when all its mirth and gayety, and crowded theatres, brilliant 
assemblies, splendid parties, and the fascinating ball-room, more than 
compensate for the deserted and dreary appearance of the city during 
the season when the malaria compels the inhabitants to seek refuge in 
the elevated parts of the country, or by a journey to the north, combine 
objects of pleasure and health, which are frequently so widely separated. 

My health returned slowly — but never were days more delightfully 
passed than those which glided away in the company of Mary Mornton, 
the lovely person who had obtained so complete an ascendency over my 
whole soul, that the thought that returning health, much as I desired 
it, would hasten my separation from one whose presence I felt to be 
absolutely necessary to my happiness, threw a chill over my feelings ; 
and I dismissed the unwelcome intruder as an enemy to my peace and 
happiness. 

I had now so far recovered as to be able to receive company, and 
even to attend a few select parties, where I was introduced to a young 
lady, an intimate acquaintance of the lovely Mary's, of the. greatest 
accomplishments, and, as she fondly imagined, unrivalled beauty. On 
the most friendly terms with Mary, Miss Hanson was always received 
with pleasure at Colonel Mornton' s, and now that the rounds of pleasure 
had once been enjoyed, she became a daily visitor. Intent only on the 
transcendent excellence of the lovely Mary, I had no time to make com- 
parisons between them ; and had I undertaken it, they would undoubt- 
edly have been partial. A brother of Miss Hanson's, whose name was 
George, was frequently a visitor at my residence, sometimes in com- 
pany with his sister, sometimes without ; and although his cold, haughty, 
supercilious, and overbearing manner was far from agreeable, yet his 
rank, his station in society, and his prospects in life, contributed to give 
him an ascendency in all parties, which few felt inclined to dispute. 

He had returned from Europe a short time previous to my arrival 
in Charleston, and the imposing superiority which a sea-voyage across 
the Atlantic enables a man to assume as a judge of manners and men, 
I concluded might not wholly have been laid aside. As it concerned 
myself personally, I cared but little about him ; but there was one 
subject which gave me more uneasiness than any other, and that was 
the marked attention he paid to Mary. Though I closely observed her, 
I could see nothing in her conduct to justify any apprehensions — yet I 
confess I felt it would be morally impossible for her to reject the supe- 
rior advantages which a union with this man presented above any I 
could offer. 

" That is the most charming creature I ever saw," said George to me, 
one evening, as we were together sitting on a sofa, while Mary and his 
sister were playfully discussing some question of fashion or taste, in 



22 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

another part of the room; "I have visited Paris and London, but, 
among all their fashionable circles and their beauties, I never saw a Mary 
Mornton. Who could have thought that the rosebud that I so heed- 
lessly overlooked three years ago, when I left Charleston for Europe, 
would so soon have expanded into so beautiful a flower V 

" Perhaps no one," I replied, with an air of indifference which ill ac- 
corded with my feelings. The compliment my heart told me was just, 
and I was inwardly pleased to hear it awarded, although I felt fearful of 
the result, should his preference be openly avowed. " Mary is indeed a 
fine girl — but I must be permitted to say the same of the greater part 
of the Charleston fair with whom I have had the happiness to become 
acquainted." 

"Ah, Mortimer," said G-eorge, tapping me on the shoulder, "that 
maidenly blush of yours gives the lie to the pretended coldness of your 
words ; but you had better be upon your guard, and not suffer her to 
run away with your heart — for it is well understood that Mary is to be 
mine. " 

I started to my feet as he pronounced the last words, and was in 
the act of demanding an explanation, when I fortunately reflected that, 
by so doing, I must disclose what I most wished to conceal, and that I 
had no right whatever to make the demand ; so I carelessly answered 
him, " that I did not consider my heart in so much danger as he sup- 
posed," and that " Mary, if he obtained her, would doubtless make an 
agreeable companion." 

At this moment, Mary came laughing up to us, and taking my hand, 
" Mortimer," said she, " our Miss Hanson insists on our passing the 
afternoon with her to-morrow, and I have promised you shall comply 
with her request. May I say you will do so ?" 

" Certainly," I answered ; " I am too much indebted to you to make 
objections to what you propose." 

" Then I propose," said Mary, " that you invite our friend George to 
forget Europe and become an American. He talks and acts as stately 
as if he thought of nothing less than Catholic Cathedrals, London Monu- 
ments, or Egyptian Pyramids. Now, Greorge," continued she, peeping 
archly in his face, " tell me seriously and soberly — did the belles of 
London or Paris eclipse the stars of our Western hemisphere ?" 

" Upon my honour, Mary," he replied, " the question has been fairly 
put, and shall be as plainly and promptly answered; it is, no ! no !" 

" Such, I knew, would be your answer," replied the lovely girl. " I 
give you full credit for the sincerity of your reply." 

" My answer was given in sober earnest," said George ; " and I again 
repeat, that the most fashionable circles of London or Pai'is cannot pro- 
duce a parallel, in loveliness and beauty, to Mary" — 

" Stop," said she, interrupting him, " not another word of your Eu- 
ropean gallantr}^ Remember, Mary Mornton is a plain American girl, 
unaccustomed to compliments, and upon whom all such fine sayings are 
entirely thrown away." 

"You seem to speak, Mary," he answered, "as if I had forgotten my 
country ; I protest against such a supposition." 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 23 

" To-morrow we will see/' replied she, smiling, " whether I am 
correct." 

The carriage at this moment drove up to the door, and 'as I handed 
Miss Hanson into it, she pressed my hand and whispered, " You will 
not forget your promise — remember, my happiness depends on you I" 

" Be assured I will not," I hastily replied, as she drew her veil over 
her beautiful features — and the carriage drove off. 

" Mary," said I, after they departed, " you were too unmercifully 
severe with our friend George ; it is well you are not ,a man, or you 
would be called out to answer for your plainness." < 

"I know him well," she answered; ''at least as well as a person 
can know such a compound of hauteur and hypocrisy — and I neither 
fear nor love him. It is a disadvantage under which we girls labour, 
that we are obliged to listen to the impertinence of fools, and we are 
charged with doing so because it pleases us." 

She looked down and sighed, as she pronounced the last words ; and 
I felt so confounded at the consequences I found myself involuntarily 
drawing from his assertion, " She is to be mine," and her implied ad- 
mission, " 1 r.iust endure him," that I had no inclination to speak — and 
there was a silence of a minute or two. 

" I see," said Mary, " my company is tiresome after that which we 
have enjoyed this afternoon, and, with your leave, I will bid you good 
evening." 

" You must not .'" I replied, eagerly, taking her by the hand and re- 
seating her beside me on the sofa ; " forgive my rudeness ; attribute it 
to ill-health ; to ill-breeding ; to want of confidence ; to any thing rather 
than the cause you have named ; rather than indifference to your com- 
pany." 

" 'Well," she replied, "I forget it all; but you must remember that 
as I am still your physician, you have no right to indulge in reflections 
which would injure your health by being pursued, and of which I am 
ignorant, I see," continued she, smiling archly in my face, '' you are 
aiSicted with that awful disorder, jealousy ! you are afraid of George — 
and well you may be, for he is a dangerous fellow." 

" I am not without apprehension on his account," I answered. " You 
admit that you do not love him, and yet you are to be his." 

"To be his ! Mary Mornton to be his !" interrupted the lovely girl, 
rising from the sofa, her countenance flushed with animation : " Who 
told you so ! George has not dared to intimate any thing of the kind — 
yet why should he not ! He has no idea that any person could differ 
with him on this subject ; but he is mistaken : never, never will Mary 
Mornton consent to receive that man for a husband : death would be a 
preferable bridegroom !" 

" But who will blame George for endeavouring to possess such excel- 
lence ?" I replied. " For desiring the happiness of calling such a trea- 
sure his own ! Yes, Mary, you will believe me when I tell you, that 
though I would rather die a thousand deaths than witness such an event, 
yet his feelings are so far in unison with my own, that I feel more dis- 
posed to pity than to blame him." 



24 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

" No more, Mortimer, no more ; so far I will believe tHat you are in 
earnest, that you do not intend what you have said to be merely com- 
plimentary ; yet, let me entreat you to be cautious : should George be- 
come apprehensive on my account, his suspicions might fall on you, and 
remember the consequences would be fatal." 

" Only say, Mary, that you would feel an interest in my happiness, 
and forgive me for doubting it, after the proofs I have already received ; 
only say that the most ardent attachment of a person as unworthy as I 
am would not be viewed with indifference by you, and I could venture 
the displeasure of a world." 

'' You are becoming too serious for a sick man," said Mary, smiling. 
" But if it would be any pleasure to know that 1 feel interested in your 
happiness, or willing to contribute to it, (since I have never been in the 
habit of dissembling my sentiments,) I shall tell you frankly, that if 
the sincerest wishes for your welfare will be the means of averting evil, 
you will long be happy." 

I was in the act of attempting to espr-ess the emotions of my throb- 
bing heart, when Mary again placed her finger on her lips, and, blushing 
in all the loveliness of innocence, half returned my embrace as I clasped 
her to my bosom. 

The next day came, and, accompanied by the lovely Mary, we re- 
paired to the mansion of G-eneral Garrett, with whom George and Miss 
Hanson resided. We were received with all that attention, that ease 
and courtly politeness, which distinguish the wellbred in all countries. 
Miss Hanson received the compliments that were paid her without em- 
barrassment, and George almost forgot the air of a man who had seen 
" vastly fine things in his day." He soon seated himself by me. "Mor- 
timer," said he, ^' I vow I would be sick half a year myself, if by that 
means I could secure the company of Mary, as you have done." 

" There is little pleasure in sickness," I replied, "yet I acknowledge 
it might be something of a temptation to suffer, if we could be certain 
of having the hours cheered by the attendance of such girls as Miss 
Hanson and Mary." 

" But every one," he continued, " would not be noticed as you have 
been ; it is natural, I believe, for the female sex to bestow their sympathy 
and their love on strangers, with whom they are unacquainted, and of 
whose character they can know nothing." 

There was an ill-natured emphasis given to this last sentence, which I 
suspect slightly crimsoned my countenance ; but instantly regaining my 
composure, without appearing to notice the manner in which the words 
were spoken, I replied, " I believed he must be mistaken, for, although 
I was a stranger, and felt most sensibly the favours which had been con- 
ferred upon me by the polite attentions of the Charleston fair, yet, I 
never could believe that a man who conducted himself as became a 
gentleman, would suffer, in their estimation, by time or acquaintance." 
" Perhaps not," answered he, coldly, " but" — 

"Gentlemen," said Mary, interrupting him, " I take the liberty of 
protesting m Miss Hanson's name and my own, against your having all 
the conversation to yourselves; we must be permitted to assist you." 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIxiN CHIEF. 25 

And her eyes met mine with an expression which, said, '' Remember — 
beware I" 

" Certainly," said I, and she took her seat between us on the sofa, 
while Miss Hanson placed herself beside me, and, with her usual gayety 
and volubility, commenced a conversation. But a few minutes, however, 
elapsed, before a servant entered with a message, requesting Mary to 
return immediately, as her mother had been taken seriously ill since we 
had left home. The carriage was immediately ordered, and Mai-y took 
advantage of the momentary absence of Mr. Hanson to request me to 
spend the afternoon where I then was. 

" I shall obey you, though unwillingly," I replied. 

'^ I know it, I feel it," answered she, smiling; " still you must obey. 
Remember, I am to be your guardian angel. Come, G-eorge, (who at 
that moment entered the room,) you shall be my beau; Mortimer I 
shall leave to make your sister amends for my absence." 

Greorge bowed apart, and, with little abatement of his customary 
hauteur, handed Mary into the carriage, who kissed her hand to me as 
the carriage drove off'; and I found myself alone with the beautiful and 
accomplished Miss Hanson. 

" Ah, Mortimer," said she, as we seated ourselves on the sofa, " how 
happy am I to have this opportunity of convincing you how much I am 
interested in your welfare ; any thing that my fortune can command, or 
my influence accomplish, is at your disposal." 

'' I fully estimate the value and kindness of your off"er," I replied ; 
" and should circumstances make it necessary, shall not hesitate to avail 
myself of its advantages. Now, however, I must think of nothing but 
mj return to my friends at the North, from whom I have been so long 
absent." 

" Then," said she, " you intend to leave us ; but, when among your 
friends at the North, you must remember there are some at the South 
by whom you will never be forgotten." " And, there are some," I re- 
plied, " who, while this heart shall continue to beat, will be remembered 
with feelings of purest delight; and, though I am compelled to leave 
them now, they will never be effaced from my recollection." 

I spoke with an earnestness and warmth of which I was insensible, 
till I perceived the cheek of my fair companion suffused with blushes — 
and I hastened to correct the impression which I found I had made, by 
saying, " that the kindness and tenderness with which I had been treated 
since I had arrived in Charleston, could not but leave the most lively 
impressions on my mind with regard to its inhabitants, and would ever 
be remembered with gratitude." 

" Is that the only emotion which will be excited by a remembrance 
of the South ?" asked she, with a look and manner which left no room 
to mistake the meaning. 

" I can hardly say," I replied, '^what feelings will predominate when 
reason shall be left to her sway : for here I feel more under the influ- 
ence of my passion than my judgment." 

" You appear determined," said she, smiling, " to remain ignorant of 
the subject on which I feel a trembling anxiety to know your opinion 3 



26 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

but whatever indifference you may manifest, my feelings will not permit 
me to remain in suspense. Perhaps what I have to say will lessen me 
in your estimation ; perhaps will by you be viewed as a violation of fe- 
male propriety and decorum ; but I throw myself on your mercy for 
forgiveness. Mortimer, I love you ! — cannot live without you — you will 
love me — you will make me yours — then my whole life shall be spent 
in making you happy !" 

Heavens ! what a moment ! Her beautiful countenance, flushed with 
the purple glow of love, reposed on my bosom, and when she threw her 
arms around my neck, as she finished speaking, her snowy bosom throb- 
bed against my beating heart with electric effect ; her coral lips almost 
touched mine, and he must have been more or less than man who could 
have refrained from invading their vermilion sanctuary. But the hal- 
lucination was but momentary; reason assumed her station as umpire, 
and the passions, victorious as they had been for a moment, now bowed 
in quiet submission to her sceptre. A single recollection of Mary, lovely 
Mary, artless and unassuming, would have sufficed to have broken the 
chains which a thousand such females might have woven around me. 
But though I could not love, most sincerely did I pity her. 

" My dear Miss Hanson," I replied, as soon as I could summon reso- 
lution enough to trust my voice, "most readily do I forgive you. I 
know full well the emotions of the heart are uncontrollable ; and you 
must forgive me for saying, that you have addressed me on a subject of 
which I as yet know nothing, and, therefore, can say nothing, except 
that I shall always remember with pleasure the happy hours I have 
spent in your company; and, that in the important affairs of love, I 
must be guided by the wishes of that man who has been to me a second 
father, and one on whom I am dependent.''' 

" And is it money, then, that influences you in your desires?" she 
replied with earnestness. " You shall have it, to the extent of your 
wishes ; why continue to be dependent on him, when it is so easy to be 
independent ?" 

'■'■ Ah, my dear Annette," I answered, "the warmth of your feelings 
makes you overlook the consequences that would flow from my accept- 
ance of your proposals ; you have forgotten that I am young, unsettled 
in business, destitute of property, without powerful friends, and de- 
pendent for every thing ; what would the world say ? what would her 
parents say, should the rich, the gay, and the accomplished Annette 
Hanson throw herself away on a stranger, friendless and homeless ?" 

"Say not," said she, "that 5'ou are friendless; that will never be ! 
All your excuses only show that you do not, that you will not love me ; 
but I desei-ve to be miserable. Some more fortunate, but not faithful, 
girl will be blessed with that affection, that love for which I in vain 
have sued. Be that as it may, I trust you will be happy !" 

She barst into tears, and sobbed aloud. 

" Lovely girl," said I, " my heart bleeds for you. Oh, cease those tears, 
I am unworthy of you — forget me — let some more deserving youth 
share that worth which kings might be proud to possess." 

My feelings at that moment were indescribable. Most sincerely did 



LAFITTE, THE EAEATAKIAN CHIEF. 27 

I sympathize witli lier : I could hardly forbear weeping. At this instant^ 
G-eorge entered the room ; he looked at us with the greatest surprise. 

" I perceive/' said he, " that I have intruded." 

"Not at all," I replied, "your presence will be a relief to us both. 
With your leave, Annette, I will retire, and call again to-morrow, when 
I shall hope to find you in better health and spirits !" 

"Never," she answered; "but go — I shall expect you to-morrow." 

I returned home. But my perturbed imagination forbade me to rest ; 
and when at last my feverish anxiety overcame my senses, and I slum- 
bered for a few moments, my terrific visions were far more intolerable 
than the waking reality. The image of the lovely Mary flitted before 
me ; but impassable gulfs separated me for ever from her ; while the 
beautiful and weeping Annette, with dishevelled hair and disordered 
dress, seemed to reproach me with something of which I was unable 
to form the most distant idea. Morning at last arrived, and the breakfast- 
table, with the cheerful influence and delightful company of Mary, soon 
dispelled these unpleasant impressions, and restored the usual elasticity 
of my spirits. 

" Well, Mortimer, you had a pleasant visit yesterday," said Mary, as, 
after breakfast, we took our customary walk in the garden, and seated 
ourselves beneath a cluster of rose-bushes. " Your countenance showed 
the impression made upon your heart." 

" If my countenance was a true index to my feelings," I answered, 
" I must have looked frightful, for my impressions since yesterday have 
been none of the most delightful." 

"I cannot say the same," replied Mary, laughing, "for I have fairly 
obtained a new lover, one who thinks he combines in bis own person 
all the excellences of his sex ; and one who would not hesitate to blow 
out the brains of any one who should dare to hint that he was mistaken 
in his estimate of himself; yes, G-eorge has at length stooped so low as 
to tell Mary Mornton he loves her." 

" If that is the case," I answered in the same careless manner, " I 
may as well give up my pretensions at once, and the sooner I leave 
Charleston the better." 

" You have spoken the truth," said Mary, her countenance at once 
assuming the utmost seriousness ; " the sooner you leave Charleston the 
better — danger may attend you here — perhaps misery to us both." 

" Mary," said I, seizing her hand, " for heaven's sake explain yourself ' 
Suspense is worse than certainty." 

" I have, for some time," continued she, " seen to what point his atten- 
tions were directed, and my object in leaving you with Miss Hanson 
when I was sent for yesterday, was to give him an opportunity to throw 
in his declaration, as the lawyers call it, if he chose, and, by at once 
letting him know his case was hopeless, put an end to the tedious for- 
malities of such a suitor." 

" I have the utmost confidence, Mary, in your management," I replied; 
" but I have formed a very wrong opinion of George, if he is a person, 
who, when his pride and will, if nothing more, are interested, will 



28 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

quietly take '^no' for an answer, and tamely surrenclei' sucli an object of 
pursuit." 

" You are perfectly correct," answered Mary ; '■'■ from all fools, good 
Lord, deliver me ! but especially from a self-conceited, obstinate one. 
George looked at me with an air of some surprise, when I coolly and 
plainly rejected bim j it was but a moment, however. ' I know,' said he, 
'that you can have no possible objection to me; but perhaps you are 
already prepossessed in favour of some one else ; perhaps that beggarly 
speculator from the North has been tampering with your heart, and in- 
sinuating himself into your good graces ; but whoever he may be, he will 
ere long repent his interference.' ' Mr. Hanson,' I answered, ' you are 
much mistaken if you suppose that such threats or dictation can produce 
any effect on the mind of Mary Mornton, except it is contempt for 
their author — my heart is as yet my own, but when I see fit to bestow 
that, with my affection, on any individual, I shall do it without consi- 
dering myself accountable to you or any other person, my dear parents 
excepted.' ' You appear so well when angry,' answered G-eorge, * that 
I am sorry to leave you ; yet before I go, I must assure you, that I 
will bear no rival in my love to you.' So saying, he left the room, 
and I feel confident," continued Mary, "that evil awaits you, if you 
remain in this place; remember, you are under my directions, and I 
command you to depart for the North immediately — yes, to-day, if 
possible — that fellow would not hesitate to sacrifice you to his passions." 

" And is it you, Mary, that commands me to leave you ? Is it you 
that would bid me forsake the society of the only person that can make 
life tolerable ? Is it you that would interpose a distance between us, 
that might for ever prevent our union ? and all because a blustering 
braggadocio threatens. No, let me perish first — I fear him not." 

" You talk like a boy," said Mary, smiling. " I am not so willing to 
part with you as you seem to suppose, and it is to prevent a separation, 
which I, of all others, should most dread, that I have laid my commands 
upon you ; and you will obey — I know you will, and live for happiness 
and — Mary !" 

" Bewitching girl," I replied, " you shall be obeyed, however painful 
your request — but think not that I can absent myself long from you : 
I shall soon return, be the consequences what they may." 

" When you receive my leave," said the lovely creature, " when I 
have fairly disposed of George — not before, remember, not till you have 
my leave — if you do, it is at your peril." 

At that moment, a servant arrived with a request for me to return to 
the house, as a gentleman wished to speak with me. I accompanied 
him, and at the door was met by Mr. Mornton, who informed me that 
Mr. Hanson had called to see me, and was then at my lodging-room, 
where I repaired immediately, and found George in waiting. The cold 
and insolent manner with which he received my salutation, the change- 
ableness of his countenance, and the snakelike glance of his eyes, in- 
timated plainly the gale of the passions within. 

''I concluded, after you left us, last evening," said he, "to pay my 



LAFITTE, THE BAKATARIAN CHIEF. 29 

compliments to you in person, this morning. I presume we shall remain 
uninterrupted ?" 

" Certainly, sir, if you wish." 

" I do," he replied, and I stepped to the door and turned the key. 

" Now," said he, " I demand, without circumlocution or equivocation, 
the reasons of your attempt to ingratiate yourself into the aifections of 
Miss Mornton, when you must have known her engagements to me, and 
especially after you had pledged yourself to my sister." 

" Your language," I replied, " is so extraordinary and unbecoming a 
gentleman, that unless you state on what authority you make the de- 
mand, you will excuse me if I take no further notice of it or you, except 
to show you the door, where the cool air might benefit you, by producing 
a return of your reason." 

" I will let you know," said he, his countenance pale with rage, 
" before I leave you, that I am not to be trifled with. I demand the 
satisfaction of a gentleman, for the imposition you have practised on my 
sister, and are now trying to react on Miss Mornton." 

" If your sister has given you information that has led to this con- 
duct, she has grossly belied both herself and me. I, however, do not 
believe a syllable of it respecting her ; and so far as Miss Mornton is 
concerned, she is at hand, and can speak for herself." 

I moved towards the door, when he sprang from his seat, placed his 
back to the door, drew a pistol from his pocket, and swore most tre- 
mendously that but one of us should leave the room alive. 

" I despise you and your threats," said I, " and would leave the room 
this moment in spite of you, were it not that I have no wish to injure 
you, and I do not intend to give you the chance of murdering me." 

"I need not," said he, "the information of any one to assist me in 
detecting your villany ; and no one knows my intention of giving it 
the chastisement it deserves. Your impudent coolness shall avail you 
nothing ; you have aiFronted me in such a manner, that nothing but 
blood can efface the stain ; you have stepped between me and happi- 
ness, and when I thought that I had secured Miss Blornton, instead of 
meeting a return of my love, I found that you, miscreant as you 
are, had interfered, and I received nothing but cold incivility and 
reproach !" 

•' Your epithets, of which you are so liberal," I replied, " you had 
better reserve, in order to apply where they are more needed ; and as 
to the satisfaction you require, you can have all that the law will give, 
and that is all that you will get from me. I have no intention of setting 
myself up as a mark for every coward to shoot at." 

" Hell and furies !" exclaimed he, gnashing his teeth with rage, " do 
you think to escape me in this manner ? No ! — Miss Mornton is too high 
a prize for me to part with thus easily. I again repeat, that both of us 
leave not this room alive ; here is a pair of pistols — take your choice, 
and defend yourself, or, by the powers above, you shall feel the contents 
of the other." 

I was unarmed — my pistols, which lay in the drawer, were unloaded, 
and he had so much the maniac in his actions, that I thought it prudent 



30 EIELDS'S SCKAP-EOOK. 

to accept tlie weapon offered, but with a determination to use it only in 
self-defence. He cocked the pistol himself, as he handed it to me, and 
I had walked part of the distance across the room, to resume my seat, 
when, happening to cast my eyes towards him, I perceived him in the act 
of firing. " Stop," said I, as I faced him and almost involuntarily pre- 
sented my pistol. He fired : the ball slightly grazed the side of my 
head, and lodged in the wall of the chamber. Perceiving that he had 
not accomplished his design, and mad with desperation, he threw the 
pistol with all his might at my head. It struck my right arm near my 
shoulder, and gave it such a shock that the pistol, which I still held in 
my hand, was discharged ; the ball passed through his heart ! and he 
dropped dead upon the floor ! I flew to him, raised him up, placed him 
on the sofa, and, unlocking the door, cried for help. The report of the 
pistols alarmed the family, and I was met at the staircase by Mr. Morn- 
ton, Mary, and the servants that attended the house. 

" For God's sake, Mortimer," said Mr. Mornton, "what is the matter ? 
You are as pale as death I" 

" Follow me, and see for yourselves," I answered. 

The struggles of death had ceased when we entered the chamber ; but 
the floor was swimming with blood, in the midst of which lay the pistols 
he had intended should accomplish his murderous design ; while his 
right hand still grasped the dagger he had convulsively seized at the mo- 
ment of falling. I briefly related the circumstances that led to the 
rencounter and its fatal termination, and requested Mr. Mornton to give 
me his advice respecting the line of conduct I should pursue^ promising 
to abide by his decision, let it be what it might. 

" Mortimer," answered Mr. Mornton, " I believe you to be innocent, 
and that this man has met the fate he intended for yourself; but can 
you establish your innocence ? Your declaration will avail you nothing; 
his friends are powerful ; you are comparatively a stranger ; the penalty 
of the law will overtake you, unless you prevent it by an instantaneous 
flight. Most sincerely do I regret this unhappy occurrence, since it 
leaves but the alternative of flight or disgraceful death ! A vessel of 
mine has left the wharf this morning, but will not pass the bar till you 
can reach it; — it is bound to Havana; — from that place you can reach 
New York without difiiculty — or should circumstances render it possible 
for you to appear in this place in safety, most gladly would we welcome 
you to our mansion. You will decide immediately ; I will myself make 
the necessary arrangements for seeing you on board the vessel, if you 
choose — there you will be in safety ; if otherwise" — 

I looked at Mary. She understood my meaning. 

" Fly, Mortimer," said the lovely girl, " fly ! fly ! Would to heaven 
I could fly with you ! preserve a life dear to others as yourself — this 
storm will blow over and we will yet be happy ! Innocence, in this case, 
will avail you nothing — you will find your enemies powerful and im- 
placable I" 

" Mary," said I, as I clasped her convulsively in my arms, " 1 go 
because you command ; because you desire ; but I feel as though I 
should subject myself to a living death by a separation from you. Fare- 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 31 

well ! and whatever may happen, remember that Mortimer is yours and 
yours alone !" 

I carried the fainting girl in my arms to her chamber, again pressed 
her to my bosom, and again kissed her snowy forehead ; tore myself 
from her, and, in company with Mr. Mornton, hastened to the wharf. 

" This gentleman," said Mr. Mornton, to a number of boatman, who 
were standing on the wharf, '^ wishes to get on board the Speedwell be- 
fore she passes the bar — name your price, and huzza for the oars." 

" We would willingly oblige you, sir," answered oue of them, " but 
it is plainly impossible. Father Neptune himself could not work a boat 
against this swell." 

''It must be done," answered Mr. Mornton. 

" It cannot be done," answered the other. 

''It will be done," replied Mr. Mornton. "Remember, you make 
your own terms;" taking, as he spoke, a handful of silver dollars from 
his pocket. 

" These fellows look tempting — to your oars, lads !" 

" But, if we take three times the usual fee, you will not think it un- 
reasonable; we cannot afford to run the risk of becoming food for 
sharks, in such a sea as this, for nothing." 

" Here is four times the usual amount — away, as for life or death," 
said Mr. Mornton. 

I pressed Mr. Mornton's hand, entreated him to neglect no exertion 
in my favour, and sprang into the boat, which immediately shoved off. 

"Mr. Mornton is quite flush with his cash this morning," said the 
master of the boat, "but he knows his object — some speculations to add 
to his already overgrown fortune." 

" When George gets Mary, it will go as fast as it comes," answered 
his companion. 

" George doesn't catch the finest girl in Charleston so easy," replied 
the other. " I heard one of the clerks say, at the warehouse, this morn- 
ing, that a young merchant from the North was all the toast now, and, 
if that is the case, you may depend, George's hopes are all aback." 

" Hard to the starboard !" exclaimed the master. At that moment a 
wave struck us, and half-filled the boat with water. " Bale away, lads ! 
One more such wave as that, and we shall be drinking grog in Charon's 
ferry-boat." 

We however reached the Speedwell in safety, at the instaat they were 
getting under way, and I bade a sad adieu to the place where were con- 
centrated all my hopes, and all my fears ; and I retired to the cabin, re- 
flecting that I was separated from Mary ! perhaps for ever ! 

Our voyage was prosperous until we arrived at Key West, where we 
were hailed by a small black-looking vessel, bearing the Spanish colours, 
and ordered to send our papers on board. Some little delay occurred, 
and a shot was fired at us, which passed between our masts, without 
however doing any injury. The mate went on board with the papers, 
but was instantly seized and stabbed to the heart, while the rest of the 
boat's crew attempted to save themselves by jumping overboard, with 
the hope of reaching the Speedwell by swimming. But one reached us, 



32 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

as repeated volleys of musketry were fired at them from the pirate, and 
they sank for ever, while the waves were crimsoned with their blood. It 
was a dead calm at the time, and two boats, filled with ferocious-looking 
wretches, had left the vessel, evidently with the intention of boarding 
us; and they succeeded, after a desperate conflict, in which they lost 
nearly one-half of their crew. When they at last reached the deck, we 
were instantly overpowered ; but what was the fate of the vessel I knew 
not, as I was knocked down at the termination of the conflict, and re- 
mained senseless for several hours. Y/hen I recoAJ'ered, I found myself 
on board the pirate, with several of the gang standing round me, and to 
my inquiries, what had become of the Speedwell and crew, only one 
answer was given. " We sent them to h-11, together, for their obsti- 
nate resistance, and you would have been there, too, had we not, owing 
to the confusion of the moment, and your being covered with blood, 
mistaken you for our lieutenant, and brought you on board before we 
discovered our error ; but, cheer up, you are now safe, for damn it, bad 
as we are, we would not murder any one in cold blood ; but when our 
blood is up, look to the consequences." 

The vessel, with the plunder, was taken in among the keys, which 
line the coast of Cuba, and on one of which these villains had an es- 
tablishment, where myself, a few of the crew, and part of the arma- 
ment of the vessel were landed, while she proceeded to Havana to dis- 
pose of the plunder of the Speedwell. Day after day, and month after 
month, passed heavily away, and no information whatever was received 
of the vessel which had left us in that desolate and hopeless condition. 
They became raving, and it required the exertion of all the influence I 
possessed to keep them from murdering each other. Nor were my sen- 
sations much more agreeable than those of my companions. I reflected 
almost to madness, on the opinion that must be formed of me by my 
indulgent uncle in New York, and my adored Mary and her benevolent 
father in Charleston. There was no possibility of escaping from this 
place, as there was not wood enough on the island to construct a raft 
which would float a man across the waters which separated us from the 
land. After we had remained nearly half a year, and every project of 
escape had failed, a boat which had drifted from some wreck, during a 
storm, had struck upon the island, and its appearance was hailed with 
rapture by myself and my companions. In this we coasted Cuba, and 
arrived at Havana. Here I found the seaman who had taken care of 
me when on board the piratical vessel, suftering under the effects of the 
wound received from me, in defending the Speedwell. From him I 
learned, that the piratical vessel, immediately on her arrival at Havana, 
was seized, on the complaint of a British agent, for an attack upon one 
of his majesty's vessels, and, in consequence had, with her crew, been 
sent to Jamaica for trial. They were found guilty of the most barbai'ous 
crimes, and every man of them executed. He was himself fortunately 
on shore at the time of the seizure, and by that means escaped. I had 
learned from my companions, that the crew of the Speedwell were all 
destroyed, and after taking out such articles as were deemed most valaa- 
bls, she was scuttled and sunk. Once at Havana, my resolutions were 



LAFITTE; THE BAEATARIAN CHIEF. S3 

soon formed, and a favourable opportunity occurring, I determined to 
repair immediately to Charleston, in defiance of every danger. The 
image of the lovely Mary, pale and weeping, as when she bid me fare- 
well, haunted my imagination, whether sleeping or waking. I had 
suffered so much during my residence among the morasses of Cuba, 
and my complexion had by constant exposure become so sunburnt, that 
I was confident, should secrecy be necessary on my arrival, I stood in little 
danger of detection. But, be that as it would, there was no danger I 
would not have cheerfully encountered, to have listened to the sweet 
accents and enjoyed the delightful company of Mary. I left Havana, 
and reached Charleston in safety. The vessel anchored in the bay, and, 
with a palpitating heart, I proceeded in the boat for the city. It was 
dark when I presented myself at the door of Mr. Mornton's residence, 
and, with a faltering hand, knocked for admittance. 

The door was opened by the same servant who attended when I had 
before resided with Mr. Mornton. I was shown into the same room 
where I had so often sat, but, on inquiry for Mr. Mornton, 1 was in- 
formed that he was out on business, but would return in an hour. I 
told the servant I would wait his arrival — took a volume which was 
lying there, and seated myself with apparent composure. Every thing 
in the room reminded me of her I most wished to see ; a beautiful full- 
length portrait ' of her was suspended over the mantelpiece, and on 
opening the book, the first thing that met my eyes were the following 
lines, in the well-known hand of Mary : 

Ah, why delay his wished return ? Forgive me, 
Oh, forgive me, Mortimer, but joys deferr'd 
Make my heart sick, and hope, with all its powers, 
Can scarce suppress the anguish of my bosom ! 
But peace each murmur, fate itself may strive. 
But cannot sever thy faithful heart from mine. 

The agony of suspense was intolerable ; I longed to inquire for Mary, 
but prudence forbade. I perceived that the servant had entirely forgotten 
me, and I waited impatiently the arrival of Mr. Mornton. I walked the 
room ; I listened to every step, with the hope of catching the sound of 
the light and fairy footfall of the lovely Mary. The hour passed away, 
and Mr. Mornton arrived. I spoke ; he knew my voice instantly, and 
seized me by the hand. 

" Grood heavens ! Mortimer, can it be you V exclaimed Mr. Mornton, 
" or is it only an illusion, to mock my senses and aggravate my misfor- 
tunes ?" 

" It is no illusion — I am your own Mortimer," I replied. " Oh ! where 
is Mary ? for heaven's sake, let me see her ! — let me fly to her \" 

" Grood Grod I" answered Mr. Mornton, grasping my hand convulsively, 
" are you yet to hear the fatal story ? are you yet to learn that Mary is 
in heaven ? Yes, she is gone — gone for ever !" added he, as the tears 
trickled down his cheeks, and fell warm itpon my hand. 

I could not weep ; I could not speak ; and it was with difficulty I could 
support myself from sinking to the floor. The agonies of expiring na- 



34 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ture, I am convinced, will never exceed those of that moment, when 
every prospect of happiness was at one fell blow destroyed, and hope, 
the last anchor of the wretched, torn from its moorings. 

" G-od !" I cried, when my agitated feelings permitted the power of 
utterance, " why was I spared to endure this extremity of wretchedness ? 
why was I preserved to suffer the agonies of a living death ?" 

''My dear Mortimer, accuse not Omnipotence rashly," said Mr. 
Mornton. " I loved her as well as you. Ah ! I feel too well I loved 
her ; my heart was bound up in the happiness of Mary ; but nothing 
earthly could save her from the conqueror's arms. Oh ! Mortimer, these 
hands closed her eyes ; this bosom received her last sigh ; and her dying 
exclamation, ' My dear father, I am hastening to the company of my 
dear Mortimer !' still sounds in my ears." 

His grief found vent in tears ; and I, summoning all my fortitude, 
ventured to make an inquiry respecting her decease, and the time the 
heart-rending event took place. 

"■ You well remember," answered Mr. Mornton, " the manner in 
which you left Charleston. Though it was immediately known that Mr. 
Hanson fell by your hands, my endeavours were successfully exerted in 
preventing any attempt to pursue you till you were safe beyond their 
reach ; and as the event was one of no uncommon occurrence, it soon 
ceased to be a subject of remark, and Mary flattered herself that soon 
you would be able to return to this place, and visit your friends in safety. 
In the mean time, no information whatever was received of the Speed- 
well, and we began to fear that she had perished at sea, and all on board 
had been lost. It was not until after several months of painful sus- 
pense, that the account of the execution of the pirates reached us in the 
papers from Jamaica : — in their confession, the capture of the Speed- 
well and the murder of all her crew occupied a prominent place, and 
accounted with awful certainty for your long silence." 

I here interrupted Mr. Mornton with a short account of the loss of 
the Speedwell, the manner in which I was preserved from death, my 
residence on the island, and my escape to Havana. After I had closed, 
he proceeded : 

" Though I endeavoured to conceal the fatal event from Mary, it was in 
vain ; the account was copied in the City Gazette, and was immediately 
noticed by her. This was the termination of Mary's hopes — the death- 
blow to her happiness. The roses fled from her lips ; society lost its 
charms ; she refused to see company ; and was evidently hastening to 
that place where the weary are at rest. Although I was much alarmed 
about her, I could not persuade her to believe she was in danger. She 
always met me with a smile, but it only served to render more visible to 
the watchful eye of parental anxiety the hectic flush of her lily counte- 
nance. Hoping that a change of objects, a sea-voyage to New York, and 
the diversity of objects which we should meet with in that place, might 
have a beneficial effect in restoring her to health, I proposed her accom- 
panying me to the northern metropolis. Accustomed to yield implicit 
obedience to my wishes, she made no objection to the proposal, although 
she assured me it would do her no good ; and the result verified the pre- 



LAFITTE, THE BAKATARIAN CHIEF. 35 

diction. She declined rapidly on our voyage home, was carried from the 
vessel to her chamber, which she never again left. Annette watched 
over her with the tender anxiety of a sister, and alleviated the weari- 
some hours of sickness by every consolation in the power of friendship 
to bestow. Not a murmur escaped her. ' My dear father,' she would 
say, ' weep not for me ! we shall again meet, to be for ever happy.' 
While life lasted, of earthly objectsyou were uppermost in her affections, 
and the last quivering accents of her tongue vibrated with your name !" 

'' Lovely martyr !" I exclaimed, when he ceased speaking. " Oh, why 
could not I have flown to thee ! why could not my bosom have received 
the fatal arrow, that! might have accompanied thee to a brighter and a 
better world ! And, endeared Annette, heaven will bless thee for thy 
kindness to my departed Mary. May thy hopes never be blighted, like 
those of that lovely victim ; but may the smiles of heaven shower down 
blessings upon thee, and thy pathway of life be strewed with flowers." 

"■ Though I would not deny you the sacred luxury of grief," said Mr. 
Mornton, " I would entreat you not to indulge in it to excess. Tears 
will relieve your bursting heart, and reflection will give you fortitude to 
support your loss. You will retire to your chamber, for we shall never 
be tired of conversing and thinking of our Mary." 

" No — never !" I replied, wringing his hand, as he accompanied me to 
my chamber, and left me, as he concluded, to my repose. Vain attempt ! 
my burning brain forbade the most distant approach of rest. I reflected 
on my loss until my imagination could bear it no longer. I became be- 
wildered, and the last that I can recollect was my smiting my forehead 
and exclaiming — " Oh, Mary ! would to heaven I had died with thee !" 

In what manner I left Charleston, is to me utterly unknown. It was 
on the fifth day after I landed at Charleston, that I found myself within 
ten miles of Savannah, in Georgia,, nearly destitute of clothing, and ema- 
ciated almost to a skeleton. The events through which I had passed 
appeared like a distressing dream, from which I had just awakened, and 
it was a considerable time before I recovered a full sense of the distress- 
ing reality of my situation. I immediately proceeded to Savannah, where 
the kindness of a few individuals, among whom was the captain of a 
South American privateer, then fitting out at that port, relieved my 
necessities, and by his persuasion I consented to engage in the service, 
as second in command. I was accoi'dingly, by my request, introduced to 
the crew, who were already enlisted, as a brother of the captain, recently 
arrived from the North ; and the name of Lafitte, which I then assumed, 
I have continued to bear. My fortunes were desperate; life was a 
burden; I had nothing to lose; the situation was one which well ac- 
corded with my feelings, and I did not hesitate to accept. Our com- 
mission was from the republican government of Buenos Ayres. For 
several years we were prosperous; I had amassed a considerable fortune, 
and entertained serious thoughts of returning to New York, when, one 
evening, as we were on a cruise off St. Domingo, looking for some 
merchantmen which we knew were daily expected from Spain, we fell in 
with a British vessel of superior force, who ordered us, under pain of 
being fired into, to send our boat on board and heave to till morning. 



36 riELDS's SCRAP-BOOK. 

Captain Lafitte refused, a short altercation ensued, and an action of the 
most desperate kind commenced. The British vessel was carried by 
boarding, after great slaughter. Caj)tain Lafitte was killed early in the 
engagement — I was severely wounded by a sabre in the head — and the 
third in command, vindictive in disposition and exasperated by opposition, 
ordered no quarters to be given, and the conquered were exterminated. 
By this time, the government under whose orders we were acting, had 
been put down by the Royalists, who had effected a counter revolution. 
We were declared to be acting without ordei's from any government, 
and, refusing to surrender ourselves for trial, were outlawed and a reward 
offered for our heads. It became necessary to provide for ourselves. 
On the death of Captain Lafitte, I succeeded to the command, and we 
established ourselves on the north-west part of the Gulf, and lived on 
our enemies. When the South Americans were again found in arms, I 
espoused their cause, but a majority of my men declined acting in con- 
cert with their marine, or having our fate linked with theirs. Our 
numbers had increased so much, that I added two vessels to our esta- 
blishment, appointed Laborde second in command, and took possession 
of this island, where we have successfully maintained ourselves against 
any attempts made against us. My correspondence with New Orleans 
is direct, and I receive information almost weekly of the important 
events going on. When the present war broke out between the United 
States and G-reat Britain, we declared ourselves on the side of the 
former, and have acted accordingly ; and, though we fight with the halter 
round our necks, being considered by the government as pirates, still, 
unless we are driven to extremities, we shall be found faithful friends 
to the republic. 

'' Thus, sir, I have given you a short account of the manner in 
which I became chief of this establishment; and I can sincerely say, 
that if our present disabilities could be removed, most cheerfully 
would we perform any duty which might be assigned us in aid of the 
government." 

" My most persevering exertions shall be used in your favour," I re- 
plied, " and I have reason to believe with success. I am not entirely 
unknown to some of the officers of the government at Washington, and 
a representation of your wishes would undoubtedly meet with immediate 
attention from the executive." 

"For your friendly proposal, I thank you," Lafitte replied; ''it 
promises to restore me to that world which was once enlivened by the 
bewitching influence of Mary." 

" Lafitte," said I, " I should have thought that the perils you have 
passed through would have obliterated every trace of that victim of love, 
from your memory." 

" When this tide ceases to ebb and flow — when yonder Mississippi 
rolls its turbid waters to the frozen north — when the needle forgets to 
point to the pole — when this heart palpitates for the last time — then, 
and not till then, shall I cease to remember Mary. Forget her ! — im- 
possible !" 

And he drew from his bosom a small morocco case, suspended by a 



LAFITTE, THE BARATARIAN CHIEF. 



37 



ribbon, from which, wrapped in a paper, he took a beautiful miniature 
portrait of Mary. He kissed it with enthusiasm. 

'^ This," said Lafitte, " that lovely girl gave me at our last sad parting, 
and with such a memento daily before me, could I forget her ? Well, 
well do I remember how the angelic Mary appeared at that moment ; 
her long hair, with curling tresses, twining around her snowy neck, and 
slightly veiling her swelling bosom. Pale, ah ! deadly pale were those 
lips I had so often kissed, in the fervour of unalloyed innocence and 
love." 

He again kissed the portrait, and was replacing it, when I observed 
that the envelope contained a number of lines of poetry, in the hand- 
writing of Lafitte. I extended my hand for the paper. 

" You are welcome to read them," said Lafitte, smiling : " it has, I 
believe, been observed that every poet is a lover, and, by a parity of 
reasoning, every lover ought to be a poet. To that title, however, I 
make no pretensions — it is my first and last attempt ; they were written 
during our fii'st cruise, and when my heart bled at every recollection of 
Mary ! — the evening was beautiful ; the moon rode in silvery splendour 
through the clear blue heavens; not a breath disturbed the sleeping 
waters, and from the bosom of the waves the stars which glittered in 
the skies were reflected in all their brightness. Mary occupied my 
thoughts; I remembered the evenings I had spent in her delightful 
society ; I reflected on my loss until my ideas assumed this form ; they 
were committed to paper, and have since served to enclose this precious 
relic of former happiness." They were as follows : 

LINES TO THE MEMORY OF MAKY MORNTON. 



When death, dread monarch ! hurls the relent- 
less dart 

And lays in dust the wise, the good, the great, 
Deep streams of sorrow flow from every heart, 

And nations mourn beneath the stroke of fate. 

When the darlc tomb its jaws insatiate close 
On those dear forms whose souls were twined 
with ours. 

No stoic's self could blame the tear that flows. 
Or chase the memory from those painful hours. 

Then let the muse indulge in sighs and tears. 
O'er love that's past,.and joys for ever flown — 

Oh, why so short our bliss? — it but appears. 
Charms our fond hearts, and is for ever gone. 

Frail are our joys as is yon opening flower 
That spreads its fragrant bosom to the slcies : 

Plucked by the intruder's hand, in one short 
hour 
Its bloom is wither'd and its fragrance dies. 



Swift pass the hours where friendship spreads 
her charms. 

In dreams of bliss the months unheeded roll ; 
Nor dream we aught that tear from our fond arms 

Those dear delights that twine around the soul. 

Oh, happy moments! still I think I view, 
Tliat tender bosom, and that mild blue eye, 

Melting in love — then blame the joys that flew, 
Wi*th winged haste, to pass away and die. 

Yes; they are dead! yet memory lives to fling 
Her snowy fingers o'er the engraven heart. 

And trace those lines of love, which read, will bring 
Remembrance of those joys from which we 
never part. 

Then all farewell — or bliss, or weal, or wo — 
All are forgotten, buried — from this hour ; 

The muse resigns her harp to tears that flow 
O'er love's sweet memory, and her pleasing 
power. 



As I finished reading, my eye met Lafitte' s, and I saw a tear trem- 
bling in his eye, which was hastily wiped away. 



88 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

" Who comes here ?" said Lafitte, lifting his glass to his eye, and 
mine took the same direction. 

A sloop of war had just hove in view, and the British flag was flying 
at her peak. Lafitte replaced the portrait in his bosom, and hastened to 
give orders for clearing his vessels for action. This was speedily done, 
and all hands were at quarters. In the mean time, the sloop had an- 
chored, and a boat, fully manned, with the white flag flying, was ap- 
proaching the shore. The bearer of the flag presented Lafitte with a 
letter, to which he respectfully requested an answer. Lafitte ordered 
some refreshments for the boat's crew, as he requested me to accom- 
pany him to the hut we had just left, and which he always occupied 
when on shore. He seated himself at the table, and breaking the seal, 
read as follows : — 

"To Captain Lafitte, Commander-in-cMef of tTie Revolutionary Flotilla , 
in the Gulf of Mexico. 

''Sir — His Britannic Majesty's forces will soon visit the south-west- 
ern part of the United States with an overwhelming force, and I, as 
commander of his Majesty's Navy on the American station, am autho- 
rized to offer you any office in my power to bestow, together with any 
sum of money you may demand, if you will consent to become chief con- 
ductor of the flotilla which will be employed on this service, and 
which your intimate acquaintance with these shores enables you to do 
with so much honour to yourself and advantage to his Majesty's service. 
On your answer will depend whether we are to consider and treat you as 
a friend or an enemy. 

" V/ith sentiments of the greatest respect, I remain your servant, 

" A. Cochran, Admiral, &c. 

" At Sea, September, 1814." 

Lafitte took his pen, and, without saying a word, endorsed on the mar- 
gin of the letter — " No terms with tyrants \" enclosed it in an envelope, 
redirected it, and handed it to the officer, with " You have my answer !" 
The boat returned to the vessel, which immediately weighed anchor and 
stood out to sea. 

" These fellows, if they dared, would destroy us without ceremony," 
said Lafitte, as they disappeared before a fine breeze ; " but when favour 
is wanted, they are liberal of their promises to excess, and submissive as 
lambs. I shall not be troubled with them any more, unless they see fit 
to make an attempt upon my establishment, when they will find more 
sand-bars than clear seas, and more iron than silver. But there is 
another vessel in sight. It is my trader, from New Orleans. I shall 
now be able to liberate you, and, in a few days, land you at New Orleans 
or Mobile, as you may choose." 

Lafitte was true to his word. On the third day after the schooner's 
arrival, for such was her character, I went on board, and sailed for Mo- 
bile, as from there greater facilities were offered for reaching Washing- 
ton than from New Orleans. Before I left Lafitte, I was persuaded, 
should my mission to Washington prove successful, to return myself 



LAFITTE, THE BARATAEIAN CHIEF. 39 

with the glad news to him, in person. I landed at Mobile, reached 
Washington, succeeded in obtaining full pardon for Lafitte and his asso- 
ciates, and returned to New Orleans just as the storm, which had so long 
been gathering, burst with all its fury upon the coast of Louisiana. I 
immediately returned in a government vessel to Barataria, and was re- 
ceived by Lafitte with the warmest expressions of gratitude. He had, a 
few days previous, returned from a successful cruise, in which, among 
others, he had succeeded in capturing a British transport, containing a 
large quantity of cannon, arms, &c., destined for the attack upon New 
Orleans. On my arrival, Lafitte called his followers together, commu- 
nicated to them the intelligence of the free and full pardon guarantied 
them, and upon what conditions it had been received ; and gave them 
liberty to accept or reject the offer. "Long live the President of the 
United States l" and " Long live Lafitte !" repeatedly rent the air, and 
they unanimously resolved to follow him as their leader. 

" Brave fellows," said Lafitte, "we will prove by our swords our high 
sense of the favour conferred I" 

All hands were now busily engaged in conveying on board the vessels 
the valuable property which had been collected at that place, and the 
quantity of specie dragged from its various lurking-places far exceeded 
in quantity my idea of Lafitte's wealth. We arrived in safety at New 
Orleans, and were received by Commodore Patterson, who commanded 
on the station, with every mark of respect. Lafitte had an honourable 
command assigned him, and his heroic conduct, previous to and on the 
ever-memorable eighth of January, is already deeply marked on the 
page of history. 

When the British, confounded at their loss and covered with disgrace, 
had retired to their shipping, and all apprehension of a renewed attack 
had subsided, New Orleans exhibited a scene of unbounded gayety and 
glee. A splendid ball was given in honour of Greneral Jackson, at which 
most of the ofiicers of the army and navy were present, and all the 
beauty and bravery of the South appeared to be concentrated on the oc- 
casion. In the course of the evening, my attention was strongly engaged 
by the appearance of a young lady who entered the apartment leaning 
on the arm of the mayor of the city. She was very beautiful, yet the 
freshness of youth seemed to have passed away, and a slight shade of 
melancholy gave her a most interesting appearance. Intimately ac- 
quainted with the mayor, I was introduced as a friend to Miss Hanson, 
from Charleston, and chance soon gave me an opportunity of entering 
into conversation with his fair companion. The conversation turned on 
the remarkable deliverance New Orleans had received from the invading 
enemy. 

"I little thought," said Miss Hanson, "when I left Charleston, two 
years ago, to reside in this city, that I was to witness such a scene of 
turmoil as that through which we have just passed; and but a few days 
since, my expectations were still more faint, of beholding such a happy 
termination of our troubles as this evening affords." 

" It did appear extremely improbable," I replied, " and our friends in 



40 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

different parts of tlie Union wi-11 heartily rejoice at our escape from such 
watchwords as ' Beauty and booty.' " 

"It makes me shudder," she answered, " to think of the danger from 
which we have been rescued ! Not a fortnight ago, I sincerely wished 
myself at Charleston ; but now we are safe and happy/"' 

''Are you a native of Charleston?" I inquired. "A few years ago, 
I was considerably acquainted in that city." 

" I am," she replied ; " it is but two years since, at the earnest en- 
treaties of my uncle, who is at present mayor of this city, I left Charles- 
ton, and accompanied him here." 

"Were you acquainted at Charleston with a young lady by the name 
of Mary Mornton ?" I asked. 

" I was acquainted with her," replied Miss Hanson ; " she was my 
most intimate friend ; but Mary reposes quietly in the grave, the victim 
of unfortunate love ; often have I wished I could have slept with her." 

" Was her lover a villain ?" I inquired. 

" Oh, no ! he was as far from that, as day is from night," she an- 
swered with earnestness ; "he was one of the most amiable and engaging 
persons I have ever seen. An unfortunate affair drove him from Charles- 
ton, and the vessel in which he sailed was taken by the pirates, and 
all on board murdered ! Mary's tender heart was unable to sustain 
the shock, and she added another to the number of those who have 
fallen victims to the effect of that pleasing, painful passion, faithful 
love. No," she added, " it is impossible for Mortimer Wilson to be a 
villain." 

" You speak with warmth," I replied ; " but you are perfectly par- 
donable ; it is so difficult to find such a person, that it is no wonder he 
should attract universal admiration." She blushed deeply. " Are you 
acquainted with Lafitte ?" I continued. 

"I have never seen him," she replied, "nor have the least anxiety 
to become acquainted with him ; after all his heroism and courage, he 
is but a pirate, a murderer." 

" Our hearsay opinions are sometimes incorrect," I answered. " I 
once thought as you do. You shall have an opportunity of correcting 
your unfavourable impressions, as I have done ; pardon my absence a 
moment." 

I flew to another room, where I found Lafitte in conversation with 
several officers. There was an air of melancholy in his features, and I 
beckoned him to follow me. He took my hand and pressed it in his. 

" Once," said he, "I, too, could be happy; but where is Mary !" 

" You can still be happy, if loveliness and disinterested affection can 
make you so, without Mary," I replied. 

He was about to speak, but I placed my finger on my lips, and we, in 
a moment, found ourselves alongside of Miss Hanson. 

" Miss Hanson," said I, " I have the pleasure of making you ac- 
quainted with Captain Lafitte, of the South American service, and a 
volunteer in defence of our city." 

She extended her hand with a kind of involuntary shudder ; but at 
the moment their eyes met, her countenance was instantly suffused with 



MARSHAL Ney'S DEATH-SCENE. 41 

tlie deepest crimson ; but as instantly became deadly pale. She tottered 
towards him — " Oh, Mortimer I" *' Oh, Annette !" — and they were 
locked in each other's arms. Her sensations were too overpowering, 
she fainted in his arms, and was carried to another apartment, where, 
when she recovered, a full understanding of the remarkable circum- 
stances in which they found themselves and a reconciliation took place. 
Annette's friends were not more astonished than delighted. Lafitte had 
never forgotten Annette ; she was second only to Mary ; and if she 
could not fill the void in his heart which the death of that lovely victim 
had caused, he felt towards her all the affection which the warmest feel- 
ings of gratitude could inspire. Annette's attachment remained unal- 
tered ; and before I left New Orleans, I saw her made the happiest of 
mortals, by her union with the adored Mortimer Wilson. 



MARSHAL NEY'S DEATH-SCENE. 

The vengeance of the Allied Powers demanded some victims ; and the 
intrepid Ney, who had well-nigh put the crown again on Bonaparte's 
head at Waterloo, was to be one of them. Condemned to be shot, he 
was led to the Garden of Luxemburg, on the morning of the 7th of 
December, and placed in front of a file of soldiers, drawn up to kill 
him. One of the ofi&cers stepped up to bandage his eyes, but he re- 
pulsed him, saying, "Are you ignorant that for twenty-five years I have 
been accustomed to face both ball and bullet V He then lifted his hat 
above his head, and with the same calm voice that had steadied his co- 
lumns so frequently, in the roar and tumult of battle, said, " I declare, 
before God and man, that I never betrayed my country ; may my death 
render her happy. Vive la France !" He then turned to the soldiers, 
and striking his hand on his heart, gave the order, " Soldiers, fire !" 
A simultaneous discharge followed, and the " bravest of the brave" sank 
to rise no more. " He who had fought y?ye hundred battles for France, 
not one against her, was shot as a traitor I" As I looked on the spot 
where he fell, I could not but sigh over his fate. True, he broke his 
oath of allegiance — so did others, carried away by their attachment to 
Napoleon and the enthusiasm that hailed his approach to Paris. Still, 
he was no traitor. 



" Are you not alarmed at the approach of the king of terrors ?" said 
a minister to a sick man. " Oh, no ! I have been living six and thirty 
years with the queen of terrors — the kiog cannot be much worse." 



d2 



42 



FIELDS S SCRAP-EOOK. 



MY HOME IS THE WOELD. 



ET THOMAS H. BATLT. 



Speed, speed, my fleet vessel! the sliore is in sight. 
The breezes are fair, we shall anchor to-night; 
To-morrow, at sunrise, once more I shall stand 
On the sea-beaten shore of my dear native land. 

Ah! why does despondency weigh down my heart? 
SnCH thoughts are for friends who reluctantly part; 
I come from an exile of twenty long years. 
Yet I gaze on my country through fast-falling tears. 

I see the hills purple with bells of the heath. 
And my own happy valley that nestles beneath. 
And the fragrant white blossoms spread over the 

thorn, 
That grows near the cottage in which I was born. 

It cannot be changed — no, the clematis climbs 
O'er the gay little porch, as it did in old times. 
And the seat where my father reclined is still there — 
But where is my father ?— oh, answer me, where ? 

My mother's own casement, the chamber she loved. 
Is there — overlooking the lawn where I roved ; 
She thoughtfully sat with her hand o'er her brow. 
As she watched her young darling :— ah, where is she 



And THERE is my poor sister's garden; how wild 
Were the innocent sports of that beautiful child! 
Her voice had a spell in its musical tone. 
And her cheeks were like roses : — ah, where is she 
gone? 

No father reclines in the clematis seat ! 

No mother looks forth from the shaded retreat ! 

No sister is there stealing slily away. 

Till the half-suppressed laughter betrayed where she 



How oft in my exile, when kind friends were near, 
I've slighted their kindness, and sigh'd to be here ! 
How oft, have I said—" Could I once again see, 
That sweet little valley, how blest should I be !" 

How blest — oh ] it is not a valley like this. 

That unaided can realize visions of bliss ; 

For voices I listen ; and then I look round 

For the light steps that used to trip after the sound ! 

But see ! this green path ; I remember it well — 
'Tis the way to the church— hark the toll of the bell ! 
Oh ! oft, in my boyhood, a truant I've strayed 
To yonder dark yew-tree, and slept in its shade. 

But surely the pathway is narrower now ! 

No smooth place is left 'neath the dark yew-tree bough ! 

O'er tablets inscrib'd with sad records I tread. 

And the home I have sought — is the home of the dead ! 

And was it to this I looked forward so long. 
And shrank from the sweetness of Italy's song ? 
And turned from the dance of the dark girl of Spain ? 
And wept for my country again and again ? 

And was it for this to my casement I crept 
To gaze on the deep when I dreamed as I slept? 
To think of fond meetings, the welcome, the kiss. 
The friendly hand's pressure ! — ah! was it for this ? 

When those who so long have been absent, return 
To the scenes of their childhood, it is but to mourn; 
Wounds open afresh that time nearly had healed, 
And the ills of a life at one glance are revealed. 

Speed, speed, my fleet vessel ! the tempest may rave — 
There's calm for my heart in the dash of the wave — 
Speed, speed, my fleet vessel ! the sails are unfurl'd. 
Oh ! ask me not whither— my home is the world ! 



ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL CROCKETT. 



BY T. F. smith. 



Heakd ye that sigh with melancholy tale, 
Borne mournfully on by evening's fitful gale ? 
Like some lone whisper from the silent tomb. 
Shrouding a nation with its sadd'ning gloom ! 
It comes from Texas, like a dying knell. 
Where gloriously the immortal Crockett fell. 

Like some tall giant on the field of blood, 
Undaunted, 'midst the gallant slain, he stood. 
He knew no fear; mid danger's darkful storm, 
He boldly, proudly reared his warrior form. 
His cause— the cause of freedom and the free— 
Sis glorious watchword— Death or Liberty ! 



Sleep, mighty warrior, in thy tombless bed, 
The bravest hero of the valiant dead ! 
Thy name is cherislied in a nation's pride. 
Whose tears for thy sad fate can ne'er be dried ! 
Some sculptured marble yet shall rise and tell 
How Crockett, with his brave companions, fell. 

Freedom shall light her torch around thy tomb. 
And freemen write the story of thy doom! 
Tyrants shall tremble at thy honoured name. 
And blush to read the record of thy fame; 
■\ATiile millions at their annual jubilee. 
Shall toast — a Crockett lost — a nation free ! 



SCENES AT MONTEREY. 43 



SCENES AT MONTEREY. 



The following scene was described to me by an officer commanding a 
regiment in the 2d Division, at the battle of Monterey. I give it, al- 
most in his own language, as he spoke of it, the day after it occurred, 
(24th September.) He has declared often since, that it " made him 
feel sentimental every time he thought of it;" and I am sure I never 
thought of accusing him of weakness, for it gave me the blues to hear 
him tell the story. 

'' And this," said he, in speaking of home, " reminds me of an af- 
fecting scene of last night. I was ordered by Colonel Childs to take a 
company of my regiment and break in the doors of a row of houses in 
the second plaza. I had gone nearly through, without seeing a soul, 
when, for a time, the efforts of my men were exerted in vain to get into 
one tliat seemed barricaded with care. As' the hinges of the door were 
about to give way, a tremulous voice on the inside beseeched me not to 
break the door down — it should be opened. When unlocked, I rushed 
in, as well as I could, over beds, chairs, cushions, etc. etc., and to my 
surprise, found the room occupied by about twenty-five women ! As 
soon as they saw me and the soldiers following, they ran around me and 
fell on their knees, the elder beseeching, in tones of deep distress, my 
protection, and to have their lives spared; the younger begging timidly 
not to be injured. While they were thus kneeling, and I assuring them 
that no harm or injury should befall them, a pretty little woman slid 
into the circle and knelt close to my feet. ' Senor,' said she, in a soft, 
quivering voice, ' for the love you bore your mother, for the love you 
have for your wife, for the tender affection your heart holds for your 
children, oh, spare this, my poor little babe,^ — holding up a bright-eyed, 
dimpled-cheeked little boy, about a year old. She never asked for her- 
self. In spite of me, tears rushed to my eyes, and I could only speak 
with a full heart, as I told her to rise, and assured her that she and her 
child were perfectly safe. ' Be the Holy Virgin, capting,' remarked 
a rough Irish soldier, wiping away a tear with the back of his hand, 
^ won't the ould Seventh purtect them !' 

" That night I watched over that room, which was sacredly kept from 
intrusion. The next day, we were blessed by these females in their 
attentions, for the protection we had given them, for they gave us of 
what they had to eat and drink, and we were nearly famished. Poor 
creatures, how much they were distressed ! The young mother will ever 
be painted in my mind's eye, as the devoted guardian of her babe. Her 
husband, I learned, was an officer, and was then fighting us in the city. 
She could not have known whether he was alive or not, and I have not 
heard of him." 

Many scenes, very like that described above, took place in the city. 
I did not hear of a single outrage being committed, where women were 
in the question, but heard of many instances in which food was fur- 
nished to our men and j^ai'cZ /or, even when the fight was going on. 



44 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



A SCENE IN VIRaiNIA. 

On a lovely morning towards the close of spring, I found myself in a 
very beautiful part of the Great Valley of Virginia. Spurred onward 
by impatience, I beheld the sun rising in splendour and changing the blue 
tints on the tops of the lofty Alleghany mountains into streaks of the 
purest gold, and nature seemed to smile in the freshness of beauty. A 
ride of about fifteen miles, and a pleasant woodland ramble of about two, 
brought myself and companion to the great Natural Bridge. 

Although I had been anxiously looking forward to this time, and my 
mind had been considerably excited by expectation, yet I was not alto- 
gether prepared for the visit. This great work of nature is considered 
by many as the second great curiosity in our country — Niagara Falls 
being the first. I do not expect to convey a very correct idea of this 
bridge, for no description can do this. 

The Natural Bridge is entirely the work of God. It is of solid lime- 
stone, and connects two huge mountains together, by a most beautiful 
arch, over which there is a great wagon-road. Its length, from one 
mountain to the other, is nearly eighty feet; its width, about thirty-five; 
its thickness, about forty-five, and its perpendicular height over the 
water is not far from two hundred and twenty feet. A few bushes grow 
on its top, by which the traveller may hold himself as he looks over. 
On each side of the stream, and near the bridge, are rocks, projecting 
ten or fifteen feet over the water, and from two hundred to three hun- 
dred feet from its surface, all of limestone. The visitor cannot give so 
good a description of this bridge as he can of his feelings at the time. 
He softly creeps out on a shaggy projecting rock, and looking down a 
chasm from forty to sixty feet wide, he sees, nearly three hundred feet 
below, a wide stream, foaming and dashing against the rocks beneath, 
as if terrified at the rocks above. This stream is called Cedar Creek. 
The visitor here sees trees under the arch, whose height is seventy feet, 
and yet, to look down upon them, they appear like small bushes of per- 
haps two or three feet in height. I saw several birds fly under the arch, 
and they looked like insects. I threw down a stone, and counted thirty- 
four before it reached the water. All hear of heights and depths, but 
they here see what is high, and they tremble, and feel it to be deep. 
The awful rocks present their everlasting hutments, the water murmurs 
and foams far below, and the two mountains rear their proud heads on 
each side, separated by a channel of sublimity. Those who view the 
sun, the moon, and the sta,rs, and allow that none but God could make 
them, will here be impressed with the conviction that none but Almighty 
God could build a bridge like this. 

The view of the bridge from below is as pleasing as the top is awful. 
The arch from beneath would seem to be about two feet in thickness. 
Some idea of the distance from the top to the bottom may be formed 
from the fact, that as I stood on the bridge and my companion beneath, 
neither of us could speak with sufficient loudness to be heard by the 



A SCENE IN VIRGINIA. 45 

other. A man, from either view, does not appear more than four or five 
inches in height. 

As we stood under this heautiful arch, we saw the place where visitors 
have often taken the pains to engrave their names upon the rock. Here, 
Washington climhed up twenty-five feet, and carved his own name, 
where it still remains. Some, wishing to immortalize their names, have 
engraved them deep and large, while others have tried to climb up and 
insert them high in this book of fame. 

A few years since, a young man, being ambitious to place his name 
above all others, came vei'y near losing his life in the attempt. After 
much fatigue, he climbed up as high as possible, but found that the per- 
son who had before occupied his place was taller than himself, and con- 
sequently had placed his name above his reach, but he was not thus to 
be discouraged. He opens a large jack-knife, and, in the soft limestone, 
began to cut places for his hands and feet. With much patience and 
difficulty, he worked his way upwards, and succeeded in carving his 
name higher than the most ambitious had done before him. He could 
now triumph, but his triumph was short, for he was placed in such a 
situation that it was impossible to descend unless he fell upon the ragged 
rocks beneath him. 

There was no house near, from whence his companions could get assist- 
ance. He could not long remain in that condition, and, what was worse, 
his friends were too much frightened to do any thing for his relief. 
They looked upon him as already dead, expecting every moment to see 
him dashed to pieces. Not so with himself. He determined to ascend. 
Accordingly, he plied himself with his knife, cutting places for his hands 
and feet, and gradually ascended, with incredible labour. He exerted every 
muscle. His life was at stake, and all the terrors of death rose before 
him. He dared not to look downwards, lest his head should become 
dizzy ; and perhaps on this cii'cumstance his life depended. His com- 
panions stood on the top of the rock exhorting, and encouraging him. 
His strength was almost exhausted ; but a bare possibility of saving his 
life still remained ; and hope, the last friend of the distressed, had not 
forsaken him. His course upwards was rather oblique than perpendicu- 
lar. His most critical moment had now arrived. He had ascended con- 
siderably more than two hundred feet, and had still further to rise, when 
he felt himself fast growing weak. He thought of his friends and all his 
earthly joys, and he could not leave them. He thought of the grave, 
and dared not meet it. He now made his last ejffort, and succeeded. 
He had cut his way not far from two hundred and fifty feet from the 
water, in a course almost perpendicular; and, in a little less than two 
hours, his anxious companions reached him a pole from the top and 
drew him up. They received him with shouts of joy; but he himself 
was completely exhausted. He immediately fainted away on reaching 
the top, and it was some time before he recovered ! 

It was interesting to see the path up these awful rocks, and to follow 
in imagination this bold youth as he thus saved his life. His name 
stands far above all the rest, a monument of hardihood, of rashness, and 
of folly. 



46 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

We stayed around this seat of grandeur four hours ; hut, from my own 
feelings, I should not have supposed it over half an hour. There is a 
little cottage near, lately built ; here we were desired to write our names, 
as visitors to the bridge, in a large book kept for this purpose. Two 
large volumes were nearly filled already. Having immortalized our 
names by enrolling them in this book, we slowly and silently returned to 
our horses, wondering at this great work of nature. We could not but be 
filled with astonishment at the amazing power of Him who can clothe 
himself in wonder and terror, or throw around his works a mantle of 
sublimity. 



DOCTOR FRxiNKLIN. 

The leading property of Dr. Franklin's mind — great as it was — the 
faculty which made him remarkable, and set him apart from other men, 
the generator, in truth, of all his power — was good sense — only plain 
good sense — nothing more. He was not a man of genius : there wag 
no brilliancy about him; little or no fervour; nothing like poetry or 
eloquence ; and yet, by the sole, untiring, continued operations of bis 
humble unpretending quality of mind, he came to do more in the 
world of science, more in council, more in the revolution of empires, 
(uneducated — or self-educated as he was,) than five hundred others might 
have done, each with more genius, more fervour, more eloquence, more 
brilliancy. 

He was born of English parents, in Boston, Massachusetts, New 
England, about 1706, we believe. When a lad, he ran away to Phila- 
delphia. After a long course of self-denial, hardship, and wearying dis- 
appointment, which nothing but his frugal, temperate, courageous good 
sense carried him through, he became to be successively, a journeyman 
printer, (or pressman, rather, on account of his great bodily strength,) 
in a London printing-office ; editor and publisher at home, in Philadel- 
phia, of many papers, which had prodigious influence on the temper of 
his countrymen; agent for certain colonies to this government; au 
author of celebrity ; a philosopher, whose reputation has gone over ' ae 
whole of the learned world ; a very able negotiator ; a statesma ., a 
minister plenipotentiary to France, of whose king he obtained, whil d the 
Bourbons were in their glory, by his great moderation, wisdo' i, and 
republican address, a treaty, which enabled our thirteen colonies of 
North America to laugh all the power of Great Britain, year after year, 
to scorn ; yes, all these things did Benjamin Franklin, by virtue alone 
of his good covimo7i sense. 

He died in 1796, " full of years and honours," the pride and glory of 
that empii*e, the very foundations of which he had helped into the ap- 
pointed place, with his own powerful hands. He was one of the few — 
the priesthood of liberty — that stood up undismayed, unmoved, while 
the ark of tJieir salvation thundered and shook and lightened in their 
faces ; putting their venerable bands upon it, nevertheless, and abiding 



THE CLOSING SCENE OE THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 47 

the issue while the declaration of Independence went forth like the noise 
of a trumpet to the four corners of the earth. He lived until he heard the 
warlike flourish echoing through the general solitudes of America — the 
roar of battle on every side of him — all Europe in commotion — her over- 
peopled empires riotous with a new spirit — his country quietly taking 
her place among the nations. What more could be wished? Nothing. 
It was time to give up the ghost. 

He was a great, and of course a good man. We have but few things 
to lay seriously to his charge, very few; and after all, when we look 
about us, recollecting, as we do, the great good which he has done every 
v:)liRre; the little mischief he has done, the less than little that he ever 
meditated anyicliere, in all his life, to the cause of humanity, we have 
no heart, we confess it again, to speak unkindly of him. The evil that 
Benjamin Franklin did, in the whole of his fourscore years and up- 
wards of life, was, in comparison with his good works, but as the dust 
in the balance. — BlachiooocVs llagaziiie. 



THE CLOSINa SCENE OF THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. 

FKOM SALATHIEL. 

The fall of our illustrious and unhappy city was supernatural. The 
destruction of the conquered was against the fii'st principles of the 
Boman policy, and to the last hour of our national existence, Rome 
held out offers of peace, and lamented our frantic determination to be 
undone. But the decree was gone forth from a mightier throne. During 
the latter days of the siege, a hostility, to which that of man was as the 
grain of sand to the tempest that it drives on, overpowered our strength 
and senses. Fearful shapes and voices in the air — visions startling us 
from our short and troubled sleep — lunacy, in its most hideous forms — 
sudden death, in the midst of vigour — the fury of the elements let loose 
upon our unsheltered heads — we had every terror and evil that could 
jeset human nature, but pestilence ; the most probable of all in a city 
crowded with the famishing, the deceased, the wounded, and the dead. 
Ye. though the streets were covered with the unburied — though every 
well and trench was teeming — though six hundred thousand corpses lay 
fiungSver the ramparts, and naked to the sun — pestilence came not; if 
it had Lome, the enemy would have been scared away. But the " abomi- 
nation of desolation," the pagan standard, was fixed, where it was to 
remain until the plough passed over the ruins of Jerusalem. 

On this night, this fatal night, no man laid his head on the pillow. 
Heaven and earth were in conflict — meteors burned above us ; the ground 
shook under our feet; the volcano blazed; the wind burst forth in irre- 
sistible blasts, and swept the living and the dead, in whirlwinds, far into 
the desert. We heard the bellowing of the distant Mediterranean, as if 
its waters were at our sides, swelled by a new deluge. The lakes and 
rivers roared and inundated the land. The fiery sword shot tenfold 
fire. Showers of blood fell. Thunder pealed from every quarter of the 



48 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

heavens. Lightnings, immense sheets, of an intensity of duration that 
turned the darkness into noon day, withered eye and soul, burned from 
the zenith to the ground, and marked its track by the forests on flame 
and the shattered summits of the hills. 

Defence was uuthought of, for the mortal enemy had passed from 
the mind. Our hearts quaked for fear; but it was to see the "powers of 
heaven shaken." All cast away the shield and spear, and crouched 
before the descending judgment. We were conscience smitten. Our 
cries of remorse, anguish, and horror, were heard through the roar of the 
storm. We howled to the earth to hide us ; we plunged into the sepul- 
chres to escape the wrath that consumed the living — we would have 
buried ourselves under the mountains. 

I knew the cause, the unspeakable cause, and knew that the last hour 
of crime was at hand. A few fugitives, astonished to see one man 
among them not sunk in the lowest feebleness of fear, came around me, 
and besought me to lead them to some place of safety, if such were now 
to be found on earth. I told them openly that they were to die, and 
counselled them to die on the hallowed ground of the temple. They 
followed, and I led them through the streets encumbered with every 
shape of human suffering to the foot of Mount Moriah. But beyond 
that, we found advance impossible. Piles of cloud, whose darkness was 
palpable even in the midnight in which we stood, covered the Holy Hill. 
Impatient, and not to be daunted by any thing that man could overcome, 
I cheered my disheartened band, and attempted to lead the way up the 
ascent. But I had scarcely entered the cloud, when I was swept down- 
ward by a gust that tore the rocks in flinty showers around me. • Now 
came the last and most wondrous sign that marked the fate of rejected 
Israel. 

While I lay helpless, I heard the whirlwind roar through the cloudy 
hill, and the vapours began to revolve. A pale light, that of the rising 
moon, quivered on their edges, and the clouds rose, and rapidly shaped 
themselves into forms, and battlements, and towers. The sound of 
voices was heard within, low and distant, yet strangel}^ sweet. Still the 
lustre brightened, and the airy buildings rose, tower on tower and bat- 
tlement on battlement. In awe, that held us mute, we knelt and gazed 
on this more than mortal architecture, that continued rising and spread- 
ing, and glowing with a serener light, still soft and silvery, yet to which 
the broadest moonbeam was dim. At last it stood forth to earth and 
heaven, the colossal image of the first temple, of the buildings raised by 
the wisest of men, and consecrated by the visible glory. All Jerusalem 
saw the image ; and the shout, that in the midst of their despair, ascended 
from its thousands and tens of thousands, told what proud remembrances 
were there. But a hymn was heard, that might have hushed the world 
beside. Never fell on my ear, never on human sense, a sound so ma- 
jestic, yet so subduing; so full of melancholy, yet of grandeur and com- 
mand. The vast portal opened, and from it marched a host, such as 
man shall never see but once again — the guardian angels of the city of 
David ! They came forth glorious, but with wo in all their steps ; the 
stars upon their helmets dim; their robes stained; tears flowing down 



AN infant's sleep. 49 

their celestial beauty — '^Let us go hence," was their song of sorrow. 
''Let us go hence," was answered by the sad echoes of the mountains. 
"Let us go hence" swelled upon the night to the fartliest limits of 
the laiid. The procession lingered on the summit of the hill. The 
thunder pealed, and rose over the expanse of heaven. Their chorus was 
heard still, magnificent and melancholy, when their splendour was di- 
minished to the brightness of a star. Then the thunder roared again — 
the cloudy temple was scattered ou the' wind and darkness, the omen of 
her grave, settled upon Jerusalem. 



Y ^^ INFANT'S SLEEP. 

Dr. Jamss Wilson, in a paper upon "Affections of the Heart," read 
before the Royal College of Physicians, in London, indulged in the fol- 
lowing sweet strain, in speaking of an infant's sleep : — " So motionless 
is its slumber, that, in watching it, we tremble, impatient for some stir 
or sound that may assure us of its life ; yet is the fancy of the little 
sleeper busy, and every artery and every pulse of its frame engaged in 
the work of growth and secretion. Though his breath would not stir the 
smallest insect that sported on his lip — though his pulse would not lift 
the fiovrer-leaf of which he dreamed, from his bosom; yet, following this 
emblem of tranquillity into after-life, we see him exposed to every climate 
— contending with every obstacle — agitated by every passion ; and, under 
these various circumstances, how different is the power and degree of the 
heart's action, which has not only to beat, but to 'beat time,' through 
every moment of a long and troubled life !" 



IS THERE A GOD? 



Look at ourselves. Look at man ; his reason, intelligence, and dis- 
coveries. Look at him diving into the depths of the ocean, calculating 
the eclipses of the sun and moon, and maldng the elements subservient 
to his interest and his wants. Look at his capacities ; review the ten 
thousand arguments that daily, nay hourly arise, and then tell me if 
there is a shadow of a doubt, that a Grod, a retributive Grod, does rule the 
whirlwind and direct the storm. — R. Rikcer. 



Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress — no 
crime can destroy — no enemy can alienate— no despotism enslave. At 
home, a friend — abroad, an introduction — in solitude, a solace — and in 
society, an ornament. It chastens vice — it guides virtue — it gives at 
once, grace and government to genius — without it, what is Man ? A 
splendid slave — a reasoning savage ! 
E 4 



50 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



TO W. M. G. ON THE DEATH OF HIS AMIABLE SISTER. 



Oh ! weep not for her who, from stiffering and sorrow, 
Hath fled to the clime of content and accord ; 

Whose spirit in heaven new brilliance shall borrow. 
For blessed are they who have died in the Lord. 

I have stood on the sea-shore and murmured in pity. 
As my friend the tall ship from my bosom bereft ; 

Though a forest he gave for a flourishing city. 
And happiness gained for the sorrows he left. 

Then why should we mourn o'er the dead or the dying, 
Who meekly have bow'd to the chastening rod, 

Who from gloom to the gardens of glory are flying. 
From sorrow to bliss in the city of God ? 

On earth, when our dearly loved friends are aspiring 
To pleasures and comforts that life may bestow, 

We rejoice, and as cheerfully aid in acijuiring: 
We are pleased at their pleasures, and weep for 
their wo. 

Then weep not that she, for the raptures of heaven. 
Hath fled to the climes of content and accord ; 



Mourn not that to her the white garment is given. 
For blessed are they who have died in the Lord. 

But rejoice that the sorrows of life are now ended, 
That she never shall feel of aflliction the rod ; 

That with angels her spirit to bliss hath ascended. 
To dwell with the Lamb in the garden of God. 

Eejoice that, with angels, afflictions can never 
Confine her again to a slumberless bed ; 

And that she shall dwell with the Saviour for ever. 
When the last peal of thunder shall waken the dead. 

Oh, thou friend of my heart ! fain, fain would 1 sorrow, 
And mingle my tears with thine own in accord, 

If death could -no light from eternity, borrow ; 
But blessed are they who have died in the Lord. 

Well, well do I know that the heart of a brother . 
Can never restrain the outpourings of love. 

The regret for the loss of a sister or mother- 
But still should rejoice that they're angels above. 
MiLFORD Baed. 



WHAT IS THAT, MOTHER? 

BY THE REV. GEORGE W. DOAKE. 



What is that, mother ? 

The lark, my child ! 
The morn has but just looked out, and smiled. 
When he starts from his humble, grassy nest, 
And is up and away, with the dew on his breast. 
And a hymn in his heart, to yon pure, bright sphere. 
To warble it out in his Maker's ear. 
Ever, my child, be thy morn's first lays 
Tuned, like the lark's, to thy Maker's praise. 

What is that, mother ? 

The dove, my son ! 
And that low, sweet voice, like a widow's moan, 
Is flowing out from her gentle breast. 
Constant and pure, by that lonely nest. 
As the wave is poured from some crystal urn. 
For her distant dear one's quick return. 
Ever, my son, be thou like the dove. 
In friendship as faithful, as constant in love. 



What is that, mother ? 

The eagle, boy ! 
Proudly careering his course of joy. 
Firm, in his own mountain vigour relying. 
Breasting the dark storm, the red bolt defying. 
His wing on the wind, and his eye in the sun. 
He swerves not a hair, but bears onward, right on. 
Boy, may the eagle's flight ever be thine. 
Onward and upward, and true to the line. 

Wliat is that, mother ? 

The swan, my love ! 
He is floating down from his native grove. 
No loved one now, no nestling nigh. 
He is floating down by himself to die ; 
Death darkens his eye, unplumes his wings. 
Yet his sweetest song is the last he sings. 
Live so, my love, that when death shall come, 
Swanlike and sweet, it may waft thee home ! 



FEMALE FAITH. 



She loved you when the sunny light 
Of bliss was on your brow ; 

That bliss has sunk in sorrow's night. 
And yet she loves you now. 

She loved you when your joyous tone 
Taught every heart to thrill : 

The sweetness of that tongue is gone, 
And yet she loves you still. 



She loved you when you proudly stept, 

The gayest of the gay ! 
That pride the blight of time has swept, 

Unlike her love, away. 

She loved you when your home and heart 
Of fortune's smile could boast; 

She saw that smile decay — depart — 
And then she loved you most. 



THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 51 



THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 

I HAVE seen the infant sinking clown, like a stricken flower, to the 
grave — the strong man fiercely breathing out his soul upon the field of 
battle — the miserable convict, standing upon the seafi'old, with a deep 
curse quivering on his lips — I have viewed death, in all its forms of 
darkness and vengeance, with a tearless eye — but I never could look on 
woman, young and lovely woman, fading away from the earth in beauti- 
ful and uncomplaining melancholy, without feeling the very fountains 
of life turned to tears and dust. Death is always terrible — but when a 
form of angel beauty is passing ofi" to the silent land of the sleepers, the 
heart feels that something lovely in the universe is ceasing from exist- 
ence, and broods, with a sense of utter desolation, over the lonelj' 
thoughts, that come up, like spectres from the grave, to haunt our mid- 
night musings. 

Two years ago, I took up my residence, for a few weeks, in a country 
village in the eastern part of New England. Soon after my arrival, I 
became acquainted with a lovely girl, apparently about seventeen years 
of age. She had lost the idol of her pure heart's purest love, and the 
shadows of deep and holy memories were resting like the wings of death 
upon her brow. I first met her in the presence of the mirthful. She 
was indeed a creature to be worshipped — her brow was garlanded with 
the young year's sweetest flowers — her yellow locks were hanging beau- 
tifully and low upon her bosom — and she moved through the crowd with 
such a floating and unearthly grace, that the bewildered gazer almost 
looked to see her fade away into the air, like the creation of some plea- 
sant dream. She seemed cheerful, and even gay, yet I saw that her 
gayety was but the mockery of her feelings. She smiled, but there was 
something in her smile, which told that its mournful beauty was but 
the bright reflection of a tear — and her eyelids, at times, closed heavily 
down, as if struggling to repress the tide of agony that was bursting up 
from her heart's secret urn. She looked as if she could have left the 
scene of festiAdty, and gone out beneath the quiet stars, and laid her 
forehead down upon the fresh, green earth, and poured out her stricken 
soul, gush after gush, till it mingled with the eternal fountain of life 
and purity. 

Days and weeks passed on, and that sweet girl gave me her confidence, 
and I became as her brother. She was wasting away by disease. The 
smile upon her lip was fainter, the purple veins upon her cheek grew 
visible, and the cadences of her voice became daily more weak and tre- 
mulous. On a quiet evening in the depth of June, I wandered out with 
her a little distance in the open air. It was then that she first told me 
the tale of her passion, and of the blight that had come down like mil- 
dew upon her life. Love had been a portion of her existence. Its ten- 
drils had been twined around her heart in its earliest years, and when 
they were rent away, they left a wound, which flowed till all the springs 
of her soul were blood. " I am passing away/' said she, ''and it should 



52 PIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

be so. The winds have gone over my life, and the bright buds of hope 
and the sweet blossoms of passion are scattered down, and lie withering 
in the dust, or rotting away upon the chill waters of memory. And yet 
I cannot go down among the tombs without a tear. It is hard to take 
leave of the friends who love me — it is very hard to bid farewell to these 
dear scenes, with which I have held communion from childhood, and 
which, from day to day, have caught the colour of my life, and sympa- 
thized with my joys and sorrows. That little grove, where I have so 
often strayed with my buried love, and where, at times, even now, the 
sweet tones of his voice seem to come stealing around me till the whole 
air becomes one intense and mournful melody — that pensive star, which 
we used to watch in its early rising, and on which my fancy can still 
picture his form looking down upon me and beckoning me to his own 
bright home — every flower, and tree, and rivulet, on which the memory 
of our early love has set its undying seal, has become dear to me, and 
I cannot, without a sigh, close my eyes upon them for ever." 

I have lately heard, that the beautiful girl of whom I have spoken, is 
dead. The close of her life was calm as the falling of a quiet stream — 
Efentle as the sinking of the breeze, that lingers for a time around a bed 
of withered roses, and then dies, " as 'twere from very sweetness." 

It cannot be that earth is man's only abiding place. It cannot be 
that our life is a bubble cast up by the ocean of eternity, to float a mo- 
ment upon its waves and sink into darkness and nothingness. Else why 
is it, that the high and glorious aspirations, which leap like angels from 
the temple of our hearts, are for ever wandering abroad, unsatisfied? 
Why is it, that the rainbow and the cloud come over us, with a beauty 
that is not of earth, and then pass off and leave us to muse upon their 
faded loveliness ? Why is it, that the stars, which " hold their festivals 
around the midnight throne," are set above the grasp of our limited fa- 
culties — for ever mocking us with their unapproachable glory? And, 
finally, why is it, that bright forms of human beauty are presented to 
our view and then taken from us — leaving the thousand streams of our 
afiections to flow back in an Alpine torrent upon our hearts ? We are 
born for a higher destiny than that of earth. There is a realm where 
the rainbow never fades, where the stars will be spread out before us 
like the islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beautiful 
beings, which here pass before us like visions, will stay in our presence 
for ever. Bright creature of my dreams, in that realm I shall see thee 
again ! Even now thy lost image is sometimes with me. In the myste- 
rious silence of midnight, when the streams are glowing in the light of 
the many stars, that image comes floating upon the beam, that lingers 
around my pillow, and stands before me in its pale dim loveliness, till 
its own quiet spirit sinks like a spell from heaven upon my thoughts, 
and the grief of years is turned to dreams of blessedness and peace. 

Woman. — How continually, in retirement and in the world, is the 
lesson of submission forced upon woman. To suff"er, and be silent under 
sufferings, seems the greatest command she has to obey 3 while man is 
allowed to wrestle with calamity^ and to conquer or die in the struggle. 



THE RUINS OF TIME. 53 

THE RUINS OF TI3IE. 

BY THE MILFORD BAED. 

The car of victory, the plume, the wreath, 
Defend not from the bolt of fate the brave ; 
No note the clarion of renown can breathe 
T' alarm the long night of the lonely grave. 
Or cheek the headlong haste of time's o'erwhelming wave. 

I)e. Beattie. 

Once more hath the earth completed her circuit round the burning 
and brilliant luminary of heaven. The wheels of time still roll on, and 
bury every moment in the dust the wrecks of former revolutions. The 
monuments of art and genius, the temples of ambition, pride and vanity 
every moment spring up and are hurled to the earth in the path of 
man, and serve to remind him of the mutability of all human greatness 
and all human grandeur. To him how pregnant with instruction are 
the wrecks, and ruins, and revolutions of time. They are the oracles 
of ages — they speak like a trumpet from the tomb. They speak with 
a voice of thunder to the heart — a voice more impressive than the tongue 
of Tully, more symphonious than the harp of Homer, more picturesque 
than the pencil of Apelles. I feel in my soul the grandeur of my 
exalted theme. I see the venerable shade of Time, as he stands for a 
moment on the pedestal of years ; his white locks streaming in the 
winds of winter, and his aged hand pointing to the ruins of empires, and 
his trembling form bending over the tombs of oriental genius, where the 
lamp of glory still burns and the light of immortality streams. 

Roll back the billowy tide of time! — unroll the mouldering record of 
ages ! What scenes are presented to the startled imagination of man. 
He beholds his own destiny, and the doom of his noblest achievements. 
He builds the colossal temple of his renown — he dedicates it to other 
ages — it stands on a rock, and bathes its high battlements in the blue 
clouds of heaven ; but, behold, triumphant time hurls it, with all its 
grandeur, to the dust. So it is with man himself, whose hot and hurried 
existence precipitates the hour of his own dissolution. And so it is with 
the empires of the earth — they rise, flourish, and pass away, as if thejr 
had never been. Where now is ancient Egypt, the land of science and 
sacred recollections ? Where are her thousands of cities, her Thebes, her 
lilemphis, her oracle of Ammon ? The red arm of the Goth and the 
Vandal hath levelled them with the dust ; the serpent now inhabits the 
temple where the worshipper once bent the knee of adoration — the 
oracle has been silent for ages, and the priestess long since fled from her 
falling shrine. And where are the cloud-capt pyramids of Egypt, the 
wonder of the world? Alas ! they still stand, a mournful monument of 
human ambition. But where are the kings who planned, and the mil- 
lions of miserable slaves who erected them ? Gone down to the grave ; 
the rank weed waves over the sepulchre of their mouldering bones. 

And such shall be the fate of those pyramids which have stood for 

£2 



54 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ages as the beacons of misguided ambition ; the wave of time shall roll 
over them and bury them for ever in the general mausoleum of ages. 

And have all the glory and grandeur of the world thus yielded to the 
victorious tooth of time ? Go seek an answer amid the wrecks of 
Palmyra, Balbec, and Jerusalem. Behold, the city of God hath fallen — 
through her tottering temples and ruined battlements the shade-born 
beetle wheels his dreary flight, and the roaring lion of the desert hath 
made his lair in the sepulchre of the Saviour. The musing traveller in 
vain searches for the splendid temple of Solomon • its crumbling columns 
are beneath his feet ; its sublime imagery is pictured in the landscape 
of imagination, but the glory of the world hath departed for ever. Oh, 
where are the millions of once active beings who inhabited the sacred 
city, and whose voices once made the temple vocal with the songs of 
praise ? Alas, they are lost amid the undistinguishable wrecks of time. 
Their bones are bleaching on their native hills, even more desolate than 
their once celebrated city. 

Time, like death, is an impartial conqueror. The monuments of genius 
and the arts fall alike before him in the path of his irresistible might. 
He hath uprooted the firm foundation of greatness and grandeur; nor 
less hath he desolated the gardens of oriental genius. Methinks I see him 
pointing with triumph to the tottering temples of Greece, and smiling 
at the ruins of Athens and Sparta, the homes of that illustrious philoso- 
pher who gave learning to the imperial son of Philip, and where Solon 
and Lycurgus gave laws to the world. But these cities are in ruins ; — 
their philosophers are dumb in death ; the Academy, the Porch, and the 
Lyceum no longer resound with the doctrines of Plato, Zeno, and their 
illustrious competitors. Their fame alone has survived the general 
wreck. What a lesson is this for the growing empire of the earth ! 
Greece, the glory of the world, the bright luminary of learning, liberty, 
and laws, prostrate in the dust ; her light of genius and the arts quenched 
in the long night of time ; her philosophers, heroes, statesmen, and 
poets mingling with the fragments of her fallen grandeur! Go to 
the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and the oracle of Delphos, and ask 
the story of her renown, the story of her dissolution. Alas, that temple 
hath long since dissolved in a flood of flame, and the last echo of that 
oracle hath died on the lips of iBolus. But she fell not before the flam- 
ing sword of Mahomet without a struggle. It was the last expiring 
struggle of a brave and illustrious race, and her fall was like that of the 
Colossus of Rhodes — she was recognised alone by the fragments of her 
renown. When the conquering arm of Rome spread the imperial banner 
above her walls, her literature and learning survived the fall ; but when 
the second time she fell beneath the Tartar horde, the last gleam of 
Grecian glory was extinguished in Byzantium's tomb. 

Mournful to the mind of man are the records of departed greatness. 
Where is the imperial city of the Caesars, the once proud mistress of a 
subjugated world ? She lies low, but still mighty, in the dust. Methinks 
I am seated amid the melancholy ruins of Rome. Around me are 
strewed the crumbling fragments of other ages, and before me are the 
tumbling temples once hallowed by the footsteps of the Csesars. But 



THE RUINS OF TIME. 55 

where is the cottage of Romulus, the golden palace of Nero, and the shrine 
of Apollo and the Muses ? They are mingling with the wrecks of other 
times. And where is the great Roman Eorum, in which the thunders; 
of Cicero's eloquence once struck terror to tyrants? There the shepherd 
boy roams, and the fleecy flocks now feed. There, where the tribunal 
and the rostrum, the Comitium and the Cura once stood, the lean lizard 
now crawls, and the rank grass waves in the night-breeze. Those walls 
are now silent, where the tongue of Tully once thundered and the ap- 
plause of listening senators reverberated. And where is that stupendous 
pile, the Colliseum, which stood in ancient days like a mountain of 
marble, and where the strong-armed gladiator bled and the untamed 
tigers of the forest died ? Behold it stands tottering in decay, but the 
thousands of spectators have departed, and the thunders of applause have 
died in echoes along the ruined arches. The red sun goes down and 
sheds its last ray upon its gray battlements, and the mellow moonbeam 
glimmers through the ivy-crowned walls and gloomy galleries. The 
footsteps of the solitary traveller now echo alone where the mighty 
Csesars once applauded and the clash of the combat sounded. But is 
this all ? Alas, Rome is eloquent in ruins — the city of the seven hills is 
strewed with the fragments of other ages. Go muse over the fallen forums 
of Trajan, Nerva, and Domitian — a few pillars of Parian marble alone 
remain to tell the world that they once have been. Gro and gaze on the 
ruins of the palace of the Csesars — descend into the catacombs, and 
ruminate amid the bleaching bones of the early Christians, persecuted 
by the demon of superstition even to death. Gro climb the lofty towers 
of Rome, and survey the melancholy mementos of other times and other 
men. And was this the mighty Rome that once stood against the 
legions of Carthage, led on by the victorious Hannibal ? It is the same, 
though fallen. And where is Carthage ? Buried in the vortex of obli- 
vion. Could the shades of the immortal Cicero, Horace, and Virgil 
revisit the earth and stray through those scenes which they have immor- 
talized in song and eloquence, how would they be struck with the muta- 
bility of all human .grandeur ! 

Time, mighty is the strength of thy arm ! The wonders of the 
world have fallen before thee. Witness, ye walls of Babylon, covered 
with aerial gardens, and thou great statue of Olympian Jove ! The most 
celebrated cities of antiquity have been buried by the irresistible waves of 
time. Go read an example in the fate of Syracuse, the city of Archi- 
medes, whose single arm repelled the hosts of Rome, and dared to move 
the world if he might have foundations for his feet. That splendid city 
is in ruins — her philosopher sleeps in the dust; and where are his 
mighty engines of war ? They are swept from the recollection of man. 
Go and read another example, in the fate of far-famed Troy. Seek there 
for the palaces of Priam, once illumined with the smiles of the fickle 
though beautiful Helen, for whom Sparta fought and Troy fell. Alas, 
those palace halls are silent, and the towers of Ilion lie level with the 
dust. Old Priam hath long since departed from the earth, and the 
graves of Paris and his paramour are unknown. The mighty Hector, 
too, the brave antagonist of Achilles, is no more. The glory of the 



56 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

house of Priam hath departed forever. The invaders and the invaded 
sleep together in the common mausoleum of time ; and their deeds live 
only in the tide of Homer's song. 

Such are a few instances of the ravages of time. Nor less hath our 
own loved land been the scene of desolation. Here may be seen the 
ruins of an Indian empire, more extended than the empires of the East ; 
and though they were the children of the forest, and though they left 
no monuments of sculpture, painting, and poesy, yet great were they in 
their fall, and sorrowful is the story of their wrongs. They once had 
cities, but where are they ? They are swept from the face of the earth. 
They had their temple of the sun, but the sanctuary is broken down, 
and the beams of the deified luminary extinguished. It is true, they 
worshipped the G-reat Spirit and the G-enius of storms and darkness; 
the sacred pages of revelation had never been imrolied to them ; the 
gospel of the Saviour had never sounded in the ears of the poor children 
of the forest. They heard the voice of their God in the morning breeze ; 
they saw him in the dark cloud that rose in wrath from the v/est ; they 
acknowledged his universal beneficence in the setting sun, as he sank to 
his burning bed. Here another race once lived and loved — here, along 
these shores, the council-fire blazed, and the war-whoop echoed among 
their native hills; here the dark-browed Indian once bathed his manly 
limbs in the river, and his light canoe was seen to glide over his own 
loved lakes. Centuries passed away, and they still roved the iindisputed 
masters of the western world. But at length a pilgrim bark, deep- 
freighted from the East, came darkening on their shores. They yielded 
not their empire tamely, but they could not stand against the sons of 
light — they fled. With slow and solitary steps, they took up their 
mournful march to the West, and yielded V7ith a broken heart their na- 
tive hills to another race. They left their homes, and the graves of 
their fathers, to explore western woods, where no human foot had ever 
trod, and no human eye ever penetrated. From time to time, they have 
been driven back, and the next remove will be to the bosom of the 
stormy Pacific. UnhapjDy children! — the tear of .pity has been shed 
over your wrongs and your suiferings. What bosom but beats with 
sympathy over the mournful story of their woes. As a race of men, 
they are fast fading from the face of the earth, and ere many centuries 
shall have passed, they will have been swept from the annals of ages. 
Ere long, the last wave of the West will roll over them, and their deeds 
only live in the traditions they shall have left behind them. The march 
of mind hath been to them the march to the grave. Every age they 
have rapidly declined, and a lingering remnant is now left to sigh over 
the ruins of their empire and the memory of their brave progenitors. 
The golden harvest now waves over the tombs of their fallen fathers, and 
the forest that once echoed to the war-dance is now covered with the 
rising city. Where the wigwam once stood, the tall temple, dedicated 
to Grod, now glitters in the setting sun; and the river, unrippled but by 
the Indian canoe, is now white with the sails of commerce. And when 
they shall have passed away — when the last Indian shall have stood 
upon his native hills in the West, and shall have worshipped the setting 



THE HUNGARIAN EXILES. 57 

sun for the last time, perhaps some youth may rove to the green mound 
of Indian sepulture, and ask with wonder what manner of beings they 
were. How must the poor child of the forest weep, and how must his 
heart throb with anguish, when he muses on the ruins of his race and 
the melancholy destiny of his children ! The ploughshare hath passed 
over the bones of his ancestors, and they sleep in the land of strangers, 
and of the conquerors of their dying race. Methinks I see the stately 
Indian, as he bends from the brow of the misty mountain, and surveys 
with a swelling heart the once estended limits of the Indian empire. 
The grief of years is in his soul, and he bends his knee in meek sub- 
mission before the G-reat Spirit in the clouds. Unha|)py child ! — my 
soul mourns over the ruined hopes of your fading race. 



THE HUNaAEIAN EXILES. 

The Hungarian exiles have issued an address to the people of the 
United States. The following is its conclusion : 

" Our sons have poured out their blood on the battle-field ; our wives 
and little children have been driven from their homes, persecuted, 
and separated from each other ; many of us have left behind fathers and 
mothers in misery, or even in the chains of tyrants ; many have no 
knowledge of' the fate of those dearest to them, and to none of us is it 
granted to lighten our grief by weeping among the ruins over the graves 
of our dear country. 

" Thus do we, the unfortunate, come to happy, free America. Ameri- 
cans ! you have already shown us your generous sympathy. The en- 
couraging voice of that sympathy reached us over the sea, and the warm 
grasp of American hands with which we were welcomed, tells us that 
the free American honours the free Hungarian. 

" Thank you, for this. May America calmly and safely advance to that 
greatness which Providence has appointed for her ! 

''As we step upon your hospitable shores, we reach to you our hand in 
hearty greetings. We hope for a friendly return ; for a reception such 
as one free people give to another. Yfe count upon such sympathies as 
must exist between freemen who mutually honour each other. 

" We come to you to seek rest here from the labours of battle ; to find 
alleviation for our sorrow and calamity; to await the day which Provi- 
dence has in reserve for the restoration. of our country. 

" We look with confidence for a hospitable reception in this generous 
land, that may prove to the tyrants of the earth that free people are 
closel}' bound to each other, aiM firmly resolved to carry on the struggle 
for the liberation of the human race to a victorious issue. 

" God save America, help the oppressed, and let freedom reign through- 
out the earth ! 

" May the day soon come when emancipated Hungary may gratefully 
return, on the banks of the free Danube, the hospitality so fully dis- 
pensed to her exiled patriots by the noble Americans. 

'* God help Hungary ! God bless America ! A heartfelt greeting to 
free America from the exiled patriots of Hungary I" 



58 FIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

"I HAYE SEEN AN END OF ALL PERFECTION." 

MES. SIGOURNEY. 

I HAVE seen a man in the glory of liis days and tlie pride of his 
strength. He was built like the tall cedar that lifts its head above the 
forest-trees; like the strong oak that strikes its root deeply into the 
earth. He feared no danger ; he felt no sickness ; he wondered that 
any should groan or sigh at pain. His mind was vigorous, like his 
body ; he was perplexed at no intricacy ; he was daunted at no difficulty; 
into hidden things he searched, and what was crooked he made plain. 
He went forth fearlessly upon the face of the mighty deep ; he surveyed 
the nations of the earth; he measured the distances of the stars, and 
called them by their names ; he gloried in the extent of his knowledge, 
in the vigour of his understanding, and strove to search even into what 
the Almighty had concealed. And when I looked on him, I said, 
'^ What a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in 
faculties ! in form and moving, how express and admirable ! in action, 
how like an angel ! in apprehension, how like a god I" 

I returned, — his look was no more lofty, nor his step proud ; his 
broken frame was like some ruined tower; his hairs were white and 
scattered ; and his eye gazed vacantly upon what was passing around 
him. The vigour of his intellect was wasted ; and of all that he had 
gained by study, nothing remained. He feared, when there was no 
danger ; and when there was no sorrow, he wept. His memory was de- 
cayed and treacherous, and showed him only broken images of the 
glory that was departed. His house was to him like a strange land, and. 
his friends were counted as his enemies ; and he thought himself strong 
and healthful, while his foot tottered on the verge of the grave. He 
said of his son — " He is my brother;" of his daughter, "I know her 
not;" and he inquired what was his own name. And one who sup- 
ported his last steps and ministered to his many wants, said to me, as I 
looked on the melancholy scene, " Let thine heart receive instruction, for 
thou hast seen an end of all earthly perfection." 

I have seen a beautiful female, treading the first stages of youth and 
entering joyfully into the pleasures of life. The glance of her eye was 
variable and sweet, and on her cheek trembled something like the first 
blush of the morning; her lips moved, and there was harmony; and, 
when she floated in the dance, her light form, like the aspen, seemed to 
move with every breeze. I returned, — but she was not in the dance ; I 
sought her in the gay circle of her companions, but I found her not. 
Her eye sparkled not there — the music of her voice was silent — she re- 
joiced on earth no more. I saw a train, sable and slow-paced, who bore 
sadly to an open grave what once was animated and beautiful. They 
paused as they approached, and a voice broke the awful silence : " Mingle 
ashes with ashes, and dust with its original dust. To the earth, whence 
it was taken, consign we the body of our sister." They covered her 
with the damp soil and the cold clods of the valley ; and the worms 



THE END OF ALL PERFECTION. 59 

crowded into her silent abode. Yet one sad mourner lingered, to cast 
himself upon the grave ; and as he wept, he said, '' There is no beauty, 
or grace, or loveliness, that continueth in man ; for this is the end of all 
his glory and perfection." 

I have seen an infant with a fair brow, and a frame like polished 
ivory. Its limbs were pliant in its sports j it rejoiced, and again it 
wept; but whether its glowing cheek dimpled with smiles, or its blue 
eye was brilliant with tears, still I said to my heart, "It is beautiful." 
It was like the first pure blossom, which some cherished plant has shot 
forth, whose cup is filled with the dew-drop, and whose heart reclines 
upon its parent stem. 

I again saw this child when the lamp of reason first dawned in its 
mind. Its soul was gentle and peaceful; its eye sparkled with joy, as 
it looked around on this good and pleasant world. It ran swiftly in the 
ways of knowledge ; it bowed its ear to instruction ; it stood like a lamb 
before its teachers. It was not proud, or envious, or stubborn ; and it 
had never heard of the vices and vanities of the world. And when I 
looked upon it, I remembered that our Saviour had said, " Except ye 
become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." 

But the scene was changed, and I saw a man whom the world called 
honourable, and many waited for his smile. They pointed out the fields 
that were his, and talked of the silver and gold that he had gathered ; 
they admired the stateliness of his domes, and extolled the honour of 
his family. And his heart answered secretly, " By my wisdom have I 
gotten all this ;" so he returned no thanks to God, neither did he fear 
or serve him. And as I passed along, I heard the complaints of the 
labourers who had reaped down his fields, and the cries of the poor, 
whose covering he had taken away ; but the sound of feasting and revelry 
was in his apartments, and the unfed beggar came tottering from his 
door. But he considered not that the cries of the oppressed were con- 
tinually entering into the ears of the Most High. And when I knew 
that this man was once the teachable child that I had loved, the beauti- 
ful infant that I had gazed upon with delight^ I said in my bitterness, 
"I have seen an end of all perfection;" and I laid my mouth in the 
dust. 



Home. — There is a world where no storms intrude, a haven of safety 
against the tempests of life. A little world of joy and love, of inno- 
cence and tranquillity. Suspicions are not there, nor jealousies, nor 
falsehood with her double tongue, nor the venom of slander. Peace 
embraces it with outspread wings. Plenty broodeth there. When a man 
entereth it, he forgetteth his sorrows, and cares, and disappointments; 
he openeth his heart to confidence, and to pleasure not mingled with 
remorse. This world is the well-ordered home of a virtuous and amia- 
ble woman. 



Forget not that life is like a flower, which no sooner is blown than 
it begins to wither. 



60 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



FORGET-ME-NOT. 



" The Ijeautiful little flower, commonly called ' For- 
get-me-not,' blooms in luxuriant profusion on the 
graves of the heroes of Waterloo." — Joukkal of a 
PsiVATji; Gentleman. 

Amid the fallen warriors' tombs. 

Where heroes' ashes rot, 
A loA'ely little flower there blooms— 

The sweet "forget-me-not ;" 
It fair and beautiful appears, 
Though sown 'mid carnage, groans, and tears. 

There are, whose mould'ring ashes lie 

Vv'here banners proudly sweep ; 
Where gilded scutcheons mock the eye, 

And marble statues weep; 
Oh ! there is grief enough in stone, 
But hearts that burst with sorrow none. 

More holy far than these the spot 

Where rest the warriors' bones ; 
Though marble statvies mark it not, 

Kor monumental stones ; 



There needs no sculptural pile to tell 
AVhere those who bled for freedom fell. 

Oh ! no — beneat'n her silent pall 

Should dark oblivion hide 
The fond remembrances of all 

We hold most dear beside. 
The flowers upon their graves forbid, 
That their remembrance should be hid. 

Their flowery epitaph is writ 
Where Nature's footsteps tread ; 

'Twas Freedom's self indited it. 
Above the deathless dead ; 

And you may read xipon the spot, — 

"Forget-me-not — Forget-me-not." 

I ask no more — unstrung and broken 

My feeble lyre — I crave 
Of tender grief this one sweet token, , 

That on my lowly grave 
These lovely flow'rets may appear. 
Planted by those who loved me here. 



THE DREADFUL DRAGON. 



BY THE JIILFORD BARD. 



They tell me of th' Egyptian asp. 

The bite of which is death. 
The victim yielding with a gasp 

His hot and hurried breath. 
The Egjrptian queen, says history. 

The reptile vile applied ; 
And, in the arms of agony. 

Victoriously died. 

They tell me that in Italy, 

There is a reptile dread,* 
'The sting of which is agony, 

And dooms the victim dead. 
But it is said that music's sound 

Jlay sooth the poisoned part; 
Yea, heal the galling, ghastly wound, 

And save the sinking heart. 

They tell me too, of serpents vast, 
That crawl on Afric's shore, 

And swallow men — historians past 
Tell us of one of yore. 



But there is yet one of a kind. 
More fatal than the whole. 

That stings the body and the mind, — 
Yea, doth devour the soul. 

'Tis found almost all o'er the earth. 

Save Turkey's wide domains. 
And there, if it e'er hath a birth, 

'Tis kept in mercy's chains. 
'Tis found in our own gardens gay. 

In our own flow'ry fields. 
Devouring every passing day, 

Its thousands at its meals. 

The poisonous venom withers youth. 

Blasts character and health. 
All sink before it, — hope and truth, 

And comfort, joy, and wealth. 
It is the author too of shame. 

And never fails to kill ; 
Reader, dost thou desire the name ? — • 

The SERPENT OF THE STILL. 



* The Tarantula. 



A FUNERAL HYMN. 



BY BISHOP HEBER. 



Thou art gone to the grave— but we will not deplore 

thee. 
Though sorrow and darkness encompass the tomb ; 
The Saviour has passed through its portals before 

thee. 
And' the lamp of his love is thy guide through the 

gloom. 

Thou art gone to the grave — we no longer behold thee, 
Nor tread the rough paths of the world by thy side ; 



But the wide arms of memory are spread to enfold 

thee. 
And sinners may hope since the Sinless hath died. 

Thou art gone to the grave — and its mansion forsaking. 
Perchance thy weak spirit in doubt lingered long ; 
But the sunshine of Heaven beamed brig'nt on thy 

M'aking, 
And the sound which thou heard'st was the seraphim's 

song. 



THE JACKDAW. 61 



THE JACKDAW. 



Tom Moore, the linen-draper, of Fleet street, standing at liis door 
one day, a countryman came up to him with a nest of Jackdaws, and 
accosting him, said, " Measter, wool ye buoy a nest of daws ?" " No, I 
don't want any I" "■ Measter, (replied the man,) I'll sell em chape ; ye 
sholl have the whole nest for noinpence." " I don't want 'em," answered 
Tom Moore, " so go about your business." As the man was walking 
away, one of the daws popt up his head, and cried, " Mauk, Mauk." 
" Damn it," says Moore, " the bird knows my name. Halloo, countryman, 
what will you take for that bird ?" " Whoy, you shall have it for three- 
pence." Tom Moore bought him, had a cage made, and hung it up in 
the shop. The journeymen took much notice of the bird, and would 
frequently tap at the bottom of the cage, and say, " Who are you ? who 
are you ? Tom Moore of Fleet street." In a little time, the jackdaw 
learnt these words, and, if he wanted victuals or water, he would strike 
his bill against the cage, turn up the white of his eye, cock his head, 
and cry, " Who are you ! who are you ! Tom Moore of Fleet street, 
Tom Jloore of Fleet street." Tom Moore was fond of gaming, and often 
lost great sums of money. Finding his business neglected in his ab- 
sence, he had a small hazard-table set up in one corner of his dining- 
room, and invited a party of his friends to play at it. The jackdaw 
had by this time become familiar, his cage was left open, and he hopped 
into every part of the house; sometimes he got into the dining-room, 
where the gentlemen were at play. One of them being a constant 
winner, the others would say, ''Damn it, how he nicks ^em !" The bird 
learnt these words, and, adding them to the former, would call, '' Who 
are you ! who are you ! Tom Moore of Fleet street, damn it, how he 
nicks 'em." Tom Moore, from repeated losses and neglect of business, 
failed in trade, and became a prisoner in the Fleet. He took his bird 
with him, and lived on the Master's side, supported in a decent manner. 
They would sometimes ask, '' What brought you here?" when he used to 
lift up his hands and answer, " Bad company." The bird learnt these 
likewise, and at the end of the former words would say, " What brought 
you here !" and (to imitate his master) lift up his pinions and cry, " Bad 
company." Some of Tom Moore's friends died, others went abroad, and 
he removed to the common side of the prison, where the jail distemper 
had broken out. He caught it ; and in the last stage of life, lying ou 
a straw bed, the bird, (which had been two days without food or water,) 
came to his feet, and striking his bill against the floor, called out, " Who 
are you ! who are you ! Tom Moore of Fleet street. Damn it, how he nicks 
'em ! What brought you here ? Bad company." Tom Moore, who attend- 
ed to the bird, was struck with his words, and, reflecting on himself, cried 
out, '■' Good God ! to what a wretched situation am I reduced ! My father, 
when he died, left me a good fortune and an established trade. I have 
spent my fortune, ruined my business, and am now dying in a lonesome 
jail ; and, to complete all, keeping that poor thing confined without any 



62 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

supper. I'll endeavour to do one piece of justice before I die, by setting 
liim at liberty." He made shift to crawl from the straw bed, opened the 
casement and out the bird flew. A flight of jackdaws from the Temple 
was going over the jail, and Tom Moore's mixed among them. The 
gardeners were then laying the plants of the Temple gardens, and as 
often as they placed them in the day, the jackdaws pulled them up by 
night. They got a gun and attempted to shoot some of them ; but, 
being cunning birds, they always placed one as a watch in the stump of 
a hollow tree, who, as soon as the gun was levelled, cried, "■ Mauk, Mauk," 
and away they flew, so that the men could never shoot one of them. 
The gardeners were advised to get a net, and, the first night it was 
spread, they caught fifteen. Tom Moore's bird was among them. One 
of the men took the net into the garret of an uninhabited house, fastened 
the door and windows, and turned the birds loose. " Now," says he, '* you 
black rascals, I'll be revenged on you." Taking hold of the first at 
hand, he twisted his neck, and throwing him down, cries, '' There goes 
one." Tom Moore's bird, which had hopped upon the beam, in one 
corner of the room, unobserved, as the man laid hold of the second, 
calls out, '' Damn it, how he nicks 'em !" The man dropped the bird he 
had in his hands, and turning to where the voice came from, observed the 
other with his mouth open, and called out, " Who are you !" to which 
the bird answered, "Tom Moore of Fleet street." <'The devil you are! 
and what brought you here ?" Tom's bird, lifting up his pinions, answer- 
ed, " Bad company, bad company." The fellow, frightened almost out 
of his wits, opened the door, ran down stairs, and out of the house, 
followed by the birds, which by this means saved their lives and gained 
their liberty. 



A SISTER'S LOVE. 

There is no purer feeling kindled upon the altar of human afi'ection, 
than a sister's pure, uncontaminated love for her brother. It is unlike 
all other afi'ection ; so disconnected with selfish sensuality ; so feminine 
in its development, so dignified, and yet withal, so fond, so devoted. 
Nothing can alter it, nothing can suppress it. The world may revolve, 
and its revolution effect changes in the fortunes, in the character, and in 
the disposition of her brother; yet if he wants, whose hand will so 
readily stretch out to supply him as a sister's ? And if his character is 
maligned, whose voice will so readily swell in his advocacy ? Next to 
a mother's unquenchable love, a sister's is pre-eminent. It rests so ex- 
clusively on the tie of consanguinity for its sustenance ; it is so wholly 
divested of passion, and springs from such a deep recess in the human 
bosom, that when a sister once fondly and deeply regards her brother, 
that affection is blended with her existence, and the lamp that nourishes 
it expires only with that existence. In all the annals of crime, it is con- 
sidered anomalous to find the hand of a sister raised in anger against 
her brother, or her heart nurturing the seeds of hatred, envy, or revenge 
in regard to that brother. 



THE GAMBLEE. 63 



CHARACTER OF A TRUE FRIEND. 

Concerning the man you call your friend ; tell me, will he wepp 
with you in the house of distress ? Will he faithfully reprove you to 
your face, for actions which others are ridiculing and ceusuring behind 
your back ? Will he dare to stand forth in your defence, when detraction 
is secretly aiming its deadly weapon at your reputation ? Will he ac- 
knowledge you with the same cordiality, and behave to you with the 
same friendly attention in the company of your superiors in rank and 
fortune, as when the claims of pride do not interfere with those of 
friendship ? If misfortune and losses should oblige you to retire into a 
walk of life in which you cannot appear with the same liberality as 
formerly, will he still think himself happy in your society, and, instead 
of withdrawing himself from an unprofitable connection, take pleasure 
in professing himself your friend, and cheerfully assist you to support 
the burthen of your afflictions? When sickness shall call you to retire 
from the gay and busy scenes of the world, will he follow you into your 
gloomy retreat, listen with attention to your "tale of symptoms," and 
administer the balm of consolation to your fainting spirits ? And lastly, 
when death shall burst asunder every earthly tie, will he shed a tear 
upon your grave, and lodge the dear remembrance of your mutual friend- 
ship in his heart ? 



THE GAMBLER. 



The first principles in gambling that ever my mind was taught, were 
received in taking part in that great game, which the inconsistency of 
our legislators makes lawful — I mean lotteries. It seems unaccountably 
strange to me, how our lawgivers — many of whom are ministers of the 
gospel, and all of whom deprecate gambling as one of the most promi- 
nent curses with which society is afflicted ; I say, it seems strange, how 
these men can reconcile to their consciences and to their preaching, the 
numerous gambling grants they have made and are making. They 
would shrink from allowing the petition of that man who asked liberty 
to establish a house where cards and dice might be used in games of 
chance ; but they readily grant the petition of a set of individuals to con- 
vert the whole state, or country, into a vast gambling place, wherein to 
play that game, which is infinitely more ruinous in its consequences than 
all the other schemes put together. 

I said I received my first principles of gambling from dealing in lot- 
teries. I reasoned thus : — If that game is not gambling, and if that 
game is not unlawful, in which we stake a sum of money and depend 
altogether upon chance for success or defeat ; and in which the proba- 
bility is much against us of our getting back the sum we ventured out ; 
and where there is but a mere possibility of receiving more than the 
amount staked ; surely then, those games, in which the chance of loss is 



64 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

smaller, aacl which require skill and judgment to play, cannot be gam- 
bling — cannot be unlawful. So I went to the card-table and to the dice- 
box. 

I remember the first game of cards that I everplayed. I was sixteen 
years old, and some of my partners were aged men ; men who were old 
enough to be my father, and who should have cuffed my ears and sent 
me home. But no — they praised my dexterity in handling the cards — - 
flattered my judgment, and taught me to glory in my skill. Thus, 
while they made rich my vanity, they made wretchedly poor my pockets. 
Greater men than myself may with equal truth advance this same senti- 
ment. It is true I did not play for much ; we only staked a small sum, 
just to make the game interesting ; we scorned to east a thought on the 
loss and gain; we played for amusement, not for the purpose of making 
money. This was the language we used to ourselves. But let an unin- 
terested observer look over the table at which we were playing, and 
watch the eagerness with which the stake was seized when won, and the 
working countenances of the losers, and perhaps he would put a different 
construction than mere amusement on the deep and intense interest 
each individual manifested. The truth is, profit and loss are the ruling 
spirits at a game of cards or a throw of dice. I know not which of the 
two has the most influence to keep a young man at the gaming table. 
If we are fortunate, the desire is awakened for more, and the hojoe en- 
couraged that luck is on our side ; perchance we pride ourselves on our 
skill in the game, and so we resolve to try again ; and if we are unfor- 
tunate, we will try again to repair our loss — "luck was against us;" 
" may be fortunate next time," and a thousand reasons the devotee of 
play can make to himself for trying again. 

I was then a clerk in a store, and as my funds failed me, I had re- 
course to my master's drawer. Dollar after dollar of his money went 
that way, without his knowledge. In a short time I could toss my glass. 
of spirit and whifi" my cigar, with as much grace as the most finished 
gentleman ; and I was perfect in an oath. I became an adept in play; 
and soon played deeper games. Yet, with all my cunning and judg- 
ment, many a midnight has seen me hurrying home with a heart terribly 
heavj'-, in consequence of a pocket proportionably liglht. 

I was the only son of a widowed mother, and on me her future hopes 
rested. Oftentimes would my conscience bitterly reproach me for my 
conduct, when, on entering the house at a late hour in the night, I 
found my aged and lone mother sitting up, patiently waiting my coming; 
and when she expressed her fears that I should injure my health by too 
close application to my business — for I was so base as to deceive that 
fond and trusting parent, by telling her that business of the store kept 
me away from home — and when she advised me to relax a little, awfully 
did my heart rise up against me and reprove my wickedness ; and again 
and again did I determine to forsake the '^ evil waj's" that I had been 
treading. But some nights I won ; and then an intense thirst for more 
led me back to the table ; and other nights I lost — and then I would 
try again, to make it up. 

Soon, however, was that widowed heart to be shattered and bleeding; 



THE GAMBLER. 65 

soon was it to be overflowed with the gall of bitterness. For a week or 
more, I Avas peculiarly unfortunate ; losing every night more or less. It 
may be supposed that this continued ill luck affected me considerably, 
and that my master's drawer had fr\ juffer by it. This was not all. To 
drown the regret experienced on account of my losses, I had recourse to 
frequent and liberal potations. The more I lost, the liiore I drank. I 
had often deceived my mother, who frequently detected the smell of 
spirit when I entered the room, by telling her I had been working 
among liquor in the store. For a while, this excuse answered. But 
when every night I entered the room, I brought with me the scent of 
spirituous liquors, her suspicions became awakened. Never — never shall 
I forget the hour — the terrible hour, when a mother's hopes were blasted, 
and her fond heart plunged into wo ! I returned from the gaming-table 
at a late hour, past midnight. That night I had been unusually unfor- 
tunate ; in consequence of which I drank freely and became much ex- 
cited. To have seen me at the table, shouting and drinking and sing- 
ing, one would have thought me the happiest fellow in the universe. 
My purse was completely drained, and I played on tick. But in my 
then frame of mind, money was no object to me; so I played and lost — 
played and lost — occasionally raising a stake, until I became deeply in- 
volved in debt. I cared not. I kept on my riotous course of shouting, 
swearing, and singing, until the company broke up. 

My mother was anxiously waiting for me — and " My dear son, how 
glad I am you have come I" went to my heart like a burning arrow. 
My excitement had not worn off, and I saw she eyed me suspiciously ; 
so I hurried off to bed as quick as possible. From the effects of the 
liquor I had swallowed, I was soon asleep. How long I was asleep I 
know not, when I was awakened by something dropping on my face. 
On looking up, I beheld my mother at the head of my bed, with her 
hands clasped and the big tears of agony rolling down her time-worn 
cheeks. In a moment I suspected the worst, and I hid my head in the 
bed-clothes. She had been bending over me — and I was awakened by a 
mother's tear ! I dared not lift my face to meet her eye ; but I drew 
the bed-clothes closer around me. Oh ! how my conscience smote me. 
Oh, how my heart struggled with shame ! Death ! Death ! how I wished 
for you when I heard my mother's voice, trembling with age and agony. 
*' George, George ! that I should have lived to witness this hour I 
would to God I had followed you to your grave in your infancy ! my 
child ! my child !" she frantically and broken-heartedly screamed. " Wo 
is me, that I have lived to witness my son's shame !" I strove to stop 
my ears to shut out her voice, but in vain. The words sounded in my 
ears with horrid emphasis ; and so to my dying day will they ring. The 
discovery of her son's vileness, the sudden crushing of her hopes were 
too much for her; she sank senseless on the bed. 

It was a long time before she revived ; and heavily smote my con- 
science, as I gazed, by the dim light of the lamp, on her pale face, and 
felt the coldness of her forehead as I bathed it with vinegar. I was 
fearful life had entirely forsaken her, but at last she came to. I could 
not stand and meet her look, and was turning to leave the room, when 

f2 5 



QQ FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

in a faint Yoice she requested me to stay by her. I was struck with the 
altered tone of her voice ; she did not speak reproachfully, but so calmly 
and tenderly that the tears gushed from my eyes in torrents ; it almost 
broke my heart to listen to her ; and there was something in her tone 
that thrilled fearfully through me, so that every word she uttered caused 
a dead, sinking chill at my heart — it was so hollow and unearthly. " Stay, 
my son," said she, taking my hand between her own, the iciness of 
which made me shudder — " I wish not to chide you. But, G-eorge, 
if you value your peace here and your eternal happiness hereafter, leave 
off drinking; Haste not, touch not' the accursed poison! Grod !" 
she fervently added, " strengthen him to resist temptation — turn his 
footsteps from the path that leads to the dark and dreadful pits of de- 
struction ! My son," she added in a thicker voice, '^ if you respect your 
mother's memory — if you respect your own chai-acter — remember and 
be guided by her last words — taste" — 

'^ Mother, mother ! what ails you?" I screamed, for I saw her coun- 
tenance change suddenly. The blood began to settle about the eyes, 
which became glassy, and a pale streak encircled her mouth, while her 
breath grew shorter. " I swear — mother — I swear never to touch an- 
other drop of the accursed stuff !" I uttered in a hurried and trembling 
voice. A gleam of satisfaction shot across her face for a moment, as she 
with difficulty articulated — " George, remember your oath !" These 
were her last words ; and barely were they uttered, ere I, the only living 
being in that still chamber, was bending over her lifeless form. Never, 
reader, never may you be placed in like situation. I stood bent over the 
corpse of my mother in agonizing revery until the gray, cold light of 
morning broke through the chamber windows, rendering more ghastly 
her looks, before I was aroused to a full sense of my misery. But why 
detail all my feelings ? 

I proceeded to a neighbour's house, acquainted them with my mother's 
death, stating, that she died suddenly in the course of the night, after 
she had visited me in my chamber and awakened me from sleep. I said 
not a word respecting the cause, but requ.ested their assistance in laying 
her out, &c. 

My mother was buried; and over her new-made grave I renewed the 
oath I made to her while living ; and also swore to forsake gambling and 
all wicked practices. Since her death, I have never known a moment's 
peace of mind. My vicious conduct previous to it is continually rising 
up before me, blasting my happiness. I have kept sacred my oath. How 
can I forget it ? How can I forget that night in which I became mother- 
less ? Never may I forget it ! Although its remembrance is a source 
of constant agonizing pain to me, may it always be fresh in my memory, 
I can make no other atonement for my early crime. Otho. 



When thou art tempted to throw a stone in anger, try if thou canst 
pick it up without bending thy body ; if not, stop thy hand. 



MY MOTHER S GRAVE. 



MY MOTHER'S aRAVE. 



It was thirteen years since my mother's death, when, after a long 
absence from my native village, I stood beside the sacred mound, beneath 
which I had seen her buried. Since that mournful period, great change 
had come over me. My childish years had passed away, and with them 
my youthful character. The world was altered too; and as I stood at 
ray mother's grave, I could hardly realize that I was the same thought- 
less, happy creature, whose cheeks slie had so often kissed in an excess 
of tenderness. But the varied events of thirteen years had not effaced 
the remembrance of that mother's smile. It seemed as if I had seen 
her yesterday — as if the blessed sound of her voice was then in my ear. 
The gay dreams of my infancy and childhood were brought back so 
distinctly to my mind, that had it not been for one bitter recollection, 
the tears I shed would have been gentle and refreshing. The circum- 
stance may seem a trifling one — but the thought of it even now agonizes 
my heart — and I relate it that children who have parents may love 
them as they ought. 

My mother had been ill a long time; and I had become so much ac- 
customed to her pale face and weak voice, that I was not frightened at 
them, as children usually are. At first, it is true, I sobbed violently — 
for they told me she would die ; but when, day after day, I returned 
from school, and found her the same, I began to believe she would 
always be spared to me. 

One day, when I had lost my place in the class, and done my work 
wrong-side outward, I came home discouraged and fretful. I went into my 
mother's chamber. She was paler than usual, but she met me with the 
same affectionate smile that always welcomed my return. Alas ! when 
I look back through the lapse of thirteen years, I think my heart must 
have been stone, not to have been melted by it. She requested me to 
go down stairs, and bring her a glass of water — I pettishly asked why 
she did not call a domestic to do it. With a look of mild reproach, 
which I shall never forget, if I live to be a hundred years old, " And 
will not my daughter bring a glass of water for her poor, sick mother ?" 

I went and brought her the water, but I did not do it kindly. Instead 
of smiling and kissing her as I was wont to do, I set the glass down very 
quick, and left the room. After playing a short time, I went to bed, 
without bidding my mother " Good night ■/' but when alone in my room, 
in darkness and silence, I remembered how pale she looked, and how 
her voice trembled when she said, " Will not my daughter bring a glass 
of water for her poor, sick mother ?" I could not sleep — and I stole 
into her chamber, to ask forgiveness. She had sunk into an uneasy 
slumber, and they told me I must not waken her. I did not tell any 
one what troubled me, but stole back to my bed, resolved to rise early 
in the morning, and tell her how sorry I was for my conduct. 

The sun was shining brightly when I awoke, and, hurrying on my 
clothes, I hastened to my mother's room. She was dead ! — she never 



68 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

spoke to me more — never smiled upon me again ; and when I touclied 
the hand that used to rest upon my head in blessing, it was so cold that 
it made me start. I bowed down by her side, and sobbed in the bitter- 
ness of my heart. I then wished I could die, and be buried with her; 
and old as I now am, I would give worlds, were they mine to give, could 
my mother but have lived to tell me she forgave my childish iagratitude. 
But I cannot call her back, and when I stand by her grave, and when- 
ever I think of her manifold kindness, the memory of that reproachful 
look she gave me will " bite like a serpent and sting like an adder." 



THE EOSE. 

BY MRS. SIQOTJRNET. 



I SA"W a rose perfect in beauty ; it rested gracefully upon its stalk, 
and its perfume filled the air. Many stopped to gaze upon it, many 
bowed to taste its fragrance, and its owner hung over it with delight. I 
passed again, and, behold, it was gone — its stem was leafless — its roots 
had withered ; the enclosure which surrounded it was broken down. 
The spoiler had been there } he saw that many admired it ; he knew it 
was dear to him who planted it, and besides it be had no other plant to 
love. Yet he snatched it secretly from the hand that cherished it ; he 
wore it on his bosom till it hung its head and faded, and, when he saw 
that its glory was departed, he flung it rudely away. But it left a thorn 
in his bosom, and vainly did he seek to extract it; for now it pierces the 
spoiler, even in his hour of mirth. And when I saw that no man, who 
had loved the beauty of the rose, gathered again its scattered leaves, or 
bound up the stalk which the hands of violence had broken, I looked 
earnestly at the spot where it grew, and my soul received instruction. 
And I said. Let her who is full of beauty and admiration, sitting like 
the queen of flowers in majesty among the daughters of women, let her 
watch lest vanity enter her heart, beguiling her to rest proudly upon 
her own strength; let her remember that she standeth upon slippery 
places, " and be not highminded, but fear." 



A LITTLE fellow, tired of the monotony of the school-room, began 
to amuse himself by making faces, blowing through his hands, &c. At 
last he whistled aloud. " Who whistled ?" " Bill Cole," answered the 
boy who sat next him. " Gome here. Bill Cole," said the master — 
" what did you whistle for ?" '^ Mathter, I didn't whithle." " Master, 
he did, I saw him do it." "Mathter, I didn't, thertainly," lisped the 
little culprit, " it whithled itself." 



It is said the eagle can live many weeks without food ; and that the 
period of his life is one hundred years. 



THE LAST INDIAN — THE DEITY. 



69 



THE LAST INDIAN. 



Frenzied and wild, he paused 
On the high cliff, beneath whose rugged brow 
Heav'd the wide ocean. Bold and majestic 
Was his rigid form — like some broad statue 
On the naked rock. Silently he gazed 
On the blue deep, as playfully its bright 
Eipples followed one another, as if 
Unmindful of its auditor, from whose 
Wild eye flashed vivid iires of vengeance ! 
Eoorn curled upon his bitter lip, and — " Death !" 
Fell from his parched tongue. " Vengeance !" he 

cried, 
" Vengeance upon the desolating pale face !" 
And high in the air the glittering tomahawk 
And scalping-knife he raised, and, on the eve 
Of rushing forth, he paused. "What boots it now?" 
Thoughtfully he said, and by his side the 
Glitt'ring weapons hung — his arm grew nerveless; 
His brain grew dizzy — the trees whirled round— 
A misty film bedimm'd his brilliant eye. 
" Greft Spirit !" he cried, " and shall my senses 
Thus resign their power, and my once dauntless heart 
Grow sick andfainty at the thought of death? 
I, who have braved it where the mad battle 
Bura'd— where hissing arrows sent hack the tide 



Of death, first spread by leaden show'rs from whites? 
No ! — nerved be my arm — my heart be bold ! — 
I've nought to fear — for nought have I to live ! 
My parents— where are they?— where the long line 
Of kindred — where the circle of warm friends, 
Who in other days nestled round my heart. 
And twined with devoted zeal their cords of 
Love ?— Where are they i— Ask of the pale horde 
Ask of oblivion !— they will tell thee. 
Death hath seal'd their doom, and to the Great Spirit 
Which gave it, their souls have fled ! Yes ! alone 
I, of the whole race, am left— to revenge 
Their death ! — and what can my poor arm, amid 
Thousands, do ?— Like the faint stag by bloody hounds 
Pursued, halts at leng-th, on the last brink, to 
Conquer there, or — die ! Blood from the ground 
Seems rising to my sight, and loudly calls for 
Vengeance ! Then, death, come on ; no longer will 
I flee — or seek to shun the face of the 
Accursed destroyer of my native home ! — 
But glorious death shall wipe away each stain. 
And wing my spirit to the brighter worlds '." 

He spoke. 
And with a bound he left the crag on high. 
And soon was lost amid the gloomy forest. 



THE DEITY. 



" Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? or 
Whither shall I flee from thy presence ? 
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there : 
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell 
In the uttermost parts of the earth, e'en thekb 
Shall thy hand lead me." 

PSALir cxxxis. V. 7, 8, 9, 10. 

Where am I not ?— Mid the fountain's bright gush. 
The forest's deep music — the noon's quiet hush; 
With the leaf, when it floats in the sun-setting stream; 
The autumn-rose, chaunting its own requiem ; 
And yon bright-glowing sea, with its islands of light ; 
That jewel the far-blazing coronet of night; 
From dust, and decay, to yon measiu'eless spot ; — 
Tell, tell me, ye voices, oh, where am I not ? 

Would ye ask of the morning ? — It's life-giving dew ? 
Go gaze on its glories, for there am I too ! 
With the first blush that brightens the. portals of day. 
Which the lark in his matin-song, greets with a lay ; 
And the laugh of the sunbeam, that, waked from 

repose. 
Starts forth in its beauty to crimson the rose ; 
Go ask of them all — for they have not forgot; 
And they too will answer thee, where am I not? 

Would ye ask of the evening?— Go view its decline ! 
(That most gorgeous of seasons, when earth seems a 

shrine, 
Upon which to enkindle the flame of devotion ;) 
Go number the tints that enliven the ocean ; 
The music now hush'd, to yon grove that belongs ; 



And the silence, more eloquent far than their songs : 
Go, mete out the sweetness o'er hill, tree, and grot, 
Then tell me, vain mortal, where, where am I not? 

But see ! darkness hastens : behold it expire. 
The last, dying flame of day 's funeral pyre ; 
Now night to the obsequies comes ! and she flings 
Her dark pall o'er his grandeur — his loveliest things : 
But who calls me absent ? The pale ones, that keep 
Their sad vigil of tears in yon slumberless deep ; 
Go question theji, skeptic, o'er palace or cot. 
If there looteth forth one upon where I am not ! 

Though guilt hide in darkness, think ye not 'twill 

proclaim. 
In its midnight-voiced murmurings, the presence of 

shame ? 
On the wings of the tempest I come in my pride, 
And the hoarse-sounding billows wax wroth at my 

bid. 
Then think ye the tempest dare mock me— defy 
The flash of my lightnings— the glance of mine eye? 
Or the billows conceal in their treasure-caves aught ? 
Whilst my Spirit breathes over them, where am I not ? 

I dwell with the humble, I reign with the proud : 
At the revel thou'lt find me, the pillow— the shroud: 
In Heaven, on earth, 'mid the blackness of Hell, 
Where holy ones anthem, or evil ones dwell: 
Whatever creation's wide compass confines- 
Its countless existences— numberless shrines ; 
Where'er comprehension can being allot ; 
Then tell me, ye voices, oh, where am I not ? 

SENEX. 



70 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK, 



THE EYE OF BATTLE. 



It would be difficult to convey to the mind of an ordinary reader any 
tiling like a correct notion of the state of feeling which takes possession 
of a man waiting for the commencement of a battle. In the first place, 
time appears to move on leaden wings ; every minute seems an hour, 
and every hour a day. Then there is a strange commingling of levity 
and seriousness within him ; a levity which prompts him to laugh, he 
knows not why, and a seriousness which urges him ever and anon, to 
lift up a mental prayer to the throne of grace. On such occasions, little 
or no conversation passes. The privates generally lean on their fire- 
locks, the officers on their swords ; and few words, except monosylables 
in reply to questions put, are spoken. On these occasions, too, the 
faces of the bravest often change their colour, and the limbs of the most 
resolute tremble, not with fear, but with anxiety ; whilst watches are 
consulted, till the individuals who consult them grow absolutely weary 
of the employment. On the whole, it is a situation of higher excite- 
ment and darker and deeper agitation than any other in human life ; 
nor can he be said to feel all that man is capable of feeling, who has 
not filled it. — Siege of St. Sebastian. 



HENKY AND CAROLINE. 

My tale is simple, and of humble birtli; 
A tribute of respect to real worth. 

"You are too parsimonious, Henry," said Mr. Delancy to one of his 
clerks, as they were together in the counting-house, one morning. "Grive 
me leave to say that you do not dress sufficiently genteel to appear as clerk 
in a fashionable store." Henry's face was suffused with a deep blush, 
and, in spite of his endeavours to suppress it, a tear trembled on his 
manly cheek. " Did I not know that your salary was sufficient to pro- 
vide more genteel habiliments," continued Mr. D., " I would increase it." 

" My salary is sufficient, amply sufficient, sir," replied Henry, in a 
voice choked with emotion, but with that proud independence of feeling 
which poverty had not been able to divest him of. His employer no- 
ticed his agitation, and immediately changed the subject. 

Mr. D. was a man of immense wealth and ample benevolence ; he was 
a widower, and had but one child, a daughter, who was the pride of his 
declining years. She was not as beautiful as an angel, or as perfect as 
Venus; but the goodness, the innocence, the intelligence of her mind, 
shone in her countenance, and you had but to become acquainted with, 
to admire, to love her. Such was Caroline Delancy when Henry first 
became an inmate of her father's house. No wonder, then, that he soon 
worshipped at her shrine — no wonder that he soon loved her with a deep 
and devoted affection ; and reader, had you known him, you would not 



HENRY AND CAROLINE. » 71 

have wondered tliat that love was soon returned, for their souls were 
congenial : they were cast in virtue's purest mould — and although their 
tongues never gave utterance to what their hearts felt, yet the language 
of their eyes was too plain to be mistaken. Henry was the very soul of 
honour, and although he perceived with pleasure that he was not indif- 
ferent to Caroline, he still felt he must conquer the passion that glowed 
in his bosom. "I must not endeavour to win her young and artless 
heart," thought he : ''I am penniless, and cannot expect that her father 
would ever consent to our union. He has ever treated me with kindness, 
and I will not be ungrateful." Thus he reasoned, thus he heroically 
endeavoured to subdue what he considered an ill-fated passion. Caroline 
had many suitors, some of whom were worthy of her, but she refused 
all their overtures with a gentle, yet decisive firmness. Her father won- 
dered at her conduct, yet would not thwart her inclination. He was in 
the decline of life, and wished to see her happily settled ere he quitted 
the stage of existence. It was not long ere he suspected that young 
Henry was the cause of her indifference to others : the evident pleasure 
she took in hearing him praised, the blush that overspread their cheeks 
whenever their eyes met, all served to convince the old gentleman, who 
had not forgotten that he was once young himself, that they felt more 
than a common interest in each other's welfare. He forbore making 
any remarks upon the subject, but was not displeased at the supposition, 
as the penniless Henry would have imagined. 

Henry had now been about a year in his employ. Mr. D. knew no- 
thing of his family; but his strict integrity, his irreproachable morals, 
his pleasing manners, all conspired to make him esteem him highly. 
He was proud of Henry, and wished him to appear in dress, as well as 
in manners, as respectable as any one. He had often wondered at the 
scantiness of his wardrobe : though he dressed with the most scrupulous 
regard to neatness, his clothes were almost threadbare. Mr. D. did not 
wish to think that this proceeded from a niggardly disposition, and he 
determined to broach the subject, and, if possible, to ascertain the real 
cause — this he did in the manner we have before related. 

Soon after this conversation took place, Mr. D. left home on business. 
As he was returning, and riding through a beautiful little village, he 
alighted at the door of a cottage, and requested a drink. The mistress, 
with an ease and politeness that convinced him she had not always been 
the humble cottager, invited him to enter. He accepted the invitation — 
and here a scene of poverty and neatness presented itself, such as he had 
never before witnessed. The furniture, which consisted of nothing more 
than was absolutely necessary, was so exquisitely clean that it gave 
charms to poverty, and cast an air of comfort on all around. A venera- 
ble looking old man, who had not seemed to notice the entrance of Mr. 
J)., sat leaning his head on his staff, his clothes were clean and whole, 
but so patched that you could have scarcely told which had been the ori- 
ginal piece. 

" That is your father ? I presume," said Mr. D., addressing the mistress 
of the house. 

" It is, sir." 



72 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

" Pie seems to be quite aged." 

'' He is in his eighty-third year : he has survived all his children, ex- 
cepting myself." 

''You have once seen better days?" 

" I have — my husband was wealthy ; but false friends ruined him ; he 
endorsed notes to a great amount, which stripped us of nearly all our 
property, and one misfortune followed another until we were reduced to 
complete poverty. My husband did not long survive his losses ; and two 
of my children soon followed him." 

" Have you any remaining children ?" 

" I have one, and he is my only support. My health is so feeble that 
I cannot do much ; and my father, being blind, needs great attention. My 
son conceals from my knowledge the amount of his salary ; but I am con- 
vinced that he sends me nearly all, if not the whole of it." 

" Then he is not at home with you?" 

" No, sir ; he is clerk for a merchant in Philadelphia." 

" Clerk for a merchant in Philadelphia ! Pray, what's your son's 
name ?" 

" Henry W ." 

" Henry W !" reiterated Mr. D., " why, he is my clerk ! — I left 

him at my house, not a fortnight since." 

Here followed a succession of inquiries, which evinced an anxiety that 
a mother only could feel ; to all of which Mr. D. replied to her perfect 
satisfaction. 

" You know our Henry ?" said the old man, raising his head from his 
staff. " Well, sir, then you know as worthy a lad as ever lived — Grod 
will bless him — he will bless him for his goodness to.Jiis poor old grand- 
father," he added in a tremulous voice, while the tears ran down his 
cheeks. 

" He is a worthy fellow, to be sure," said Mr. D., rising and placing a 
well-filled purse in the hands of the old man. " He is a worthy fellow, 
and shall not want friends." 

" Noble boy !" said he mentally, as he was riding leisurely along, ru- 
minating on his late interview, — '' noble boy, he shall not want wealth to 
enable him to distribute happiness. I believe he loves my girl, and if 
he does, he shall have her, and all my property in the bargain." 

Filled with this project, and determined, if possible, to ascertain the 
true state of their hearts, he entered the breakfast-room the morning 
after his arrival at home. 

" So, Henry is about to leave us, and go to England to try his fortune," 
he carelessly observed. 

" Henry about to leave us !" said Caroline, dropping the work she held 
in her hand — " about to leave us, and going to England I" she added, in 
a tone which evinced the deepest interest. 

" To be sure. What if he is, child ?" 

*' Nothing, sir, nothing ; only I thought we should be rather lone- 
some," turning away to hide the tears which she could not suppress. 

" Tell me, Caroline," said Mr. D., tenderly embracing her, " tell me, 
do you not love Henry ? You know I wish your happiness, my child ; I 



HENRY AND CAROLINE. 73 

have ever treated you with kindness ; and you have never until now hid 
any thing from your father." 

" Neither will I now/' she replied, hiding her face in his bosom. " I 
do most sincerely esteem him ; but do not, for worlds, tell him so ; for he 
has never said that it was returned." 

" I will soon find that out, and without telling him, too," replied the 
father, leaving the room. 

" Henry," said he, as he entered the counting-house, " you expect to 
visit the country shortly, do you not ?" 

" Yes, sir, in about four weeks." 

"If it will not be too inconvenient," rejoined Mr. D., "I should like 
to have you defer it a week or two longer." 

" It will be no inconvenience, sir ; and, if it will oblige you, I will wait 
with pleasure." 

" It will most certainly oblige me ; for Caroline is to be married in 
aboixt five weeks, and I would not miss of having you attend the wed- 
ding." 

" Caroline to be married, sir !" said Henry, starting, as if by an elec- 
tric shock ; " Caroline to be married ! — is it possible !" 

" To be sure it is. But what is there wonderful in that ?" 

"Nothing, sir, only it is rather sudden, rather unexpected — that's all." 

" It is rather sudden, to be sure," replied Mr. D. ; " but I am an old 
man, and wish to see her have a protector ; and as the man of her choice 
is well worthy of her, I see no use in waiting any longer, and am very 
glad that you can stay to the wedding." 

" I cannot, sir, indeed I cannot !" replied Henry, forgetting what he 
had previously said. 

"You cannot?" rejoined Mr. D. "Why, you said you would." 

" Yes, sir, but business requires my presence in the country, and I 
must go." 

" But you said it would put you to no inconvenience, and that you 
would wait with pleasure." 

" Command me in any thing else, sir ; but, in this respect, I cannot 
oblige you," said Henry, rising and walking the floor with rapid strides. 

Poor fellow, he had thought bis passion subdued ; but when he found 
that Caroline was so soon, so irrevocably to become another's, the latent 
spark burst forth into an unextinguishable flame ; and he found it in vain 
to endeavour to conceal his emotion. 

The old gentleman regarded him with a look of earnestness : — " Hen- 
ry," said he, " tell me frankly, — do you not love my girl ?" 

" I will be candid with you, sir," replied Henry, conscious that his 
agitation had betrayed him. " Had I such a fortune as she merits, — as 
you, sir, have a right to expect, I should think myself the happiest of 
men, could I gain her love." 

" Then she is yours," cried the delighted old man. " Say not a word 
about property, my boy : true worth is better than riches. I was only 
trying you, Henry, and Caroline will never be married to any other than 
yourself." 

The transition from despair to happiness was great. 

Gr 



74 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

For a moment, Henry remained silent ; but his looks spoke volumes. At 
last — '■'■ I scorn to deceive you, sir," said he, " I am poorer than what 
you suppose — I have a mother and a grandfather who are" — 

" I know it, I know it all," replied Mr. D,, interrupting him, " I 
know the reason of your parsimony, as I called it, and I honour you for 
it — it was that which first put it in my head to give you Caroline — so she 
shall be yours, and may Grod bless you both !" 

Shortly after this conversation, Henry avowed his love to Caroline, 
solicited her hand, and it is needless to say that he did not solicit in 
vain. Caroline would have deferred their union until the succeeding 
spring ; but her father was inexorable. He supposed he should have to 
own one falsehood, he said, and they would willingly have him shoulder 
two ) but it was too much, entirely too much, and he would not endure 
it. He had told Henry she was going to be married in five weeks, and 
he should not forfeit his word — '' but, perhaps," added he, apparently 
recollecting himself, and turning to Henry, " perhaps we shall have to 
defer it, after all, for you have important business in the country about 
that time." 

"Be merciful, sir," said Henry, smiling, "I did not wish to witness 
the sacrifice of my own happiness." 

" I am merciful," replied the old gentleman, " and for that reason 
would not wish to put you to the inconvenience of staying. You said 
that you would willingly oblige me, but you could not, indeed you could 
not." 

'■'■ You have once been young, sir," said Henry. 

" I know it," replied he, laughing heartily, '' but I am afraid that too 
many of us old folks forget it — however, if you can postpone your jour- 
ney, I suppose we must have a wedding." 

Vv'^e have only to add, that the friends of Henry were sent for, and the 
nuptials solemnized at the appointed time ; and that, blessed with the 
filial love of Henry and Caroline, the old people passed the remainder 
of their days in peace and happiness. Clarissa. 



Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom ; freedom, none 
but virtue ; virtue, none but knowledge ; and neither freedom, nor virtue, 
nor knowledge has any vigour or immortal hope, escept in the princijsles 
of the Christian faith, and in the sanctions of the Christian religion. — 
Mr. Quincy. 



A WIFE, joining her husband in a conveyance of real estate, was asked 
by the judge, who examined her in private, according to the act of As- 
sembly, whether she acted without compulsion on the part of her hus- 
band. She stuck her arms akimbo, and replied, '' He compel me ! no — 
nor twenty like him !" 



LIBERTY AND REVOLUTIONS. 75 

LIBERTY AND REVOLUTIONS. 

BY THE MILFORD BARD. 

Immortal Washington! to thee they pour 
A grateful tribute on thy natal hour, 
Who strike the lyre to Liberty, and twine 
Wreaths for her triumph, — for they all are thine. 
Woo'd by thy virtues to the haunts of men, 
From mountain precipice and rugged glen, 
She bade thee vindicate the rights of man. 
And in her peerless march it was thine to lead the van. 

An Ode. 

Let us pause for a moment, and contemplate the grand march of revo- 
lution and liberty, which has already gilded the page of the history of 
our times with the greatest crimes of oppression, and the most glorious 
achievements of the patriot that ever despot had to mourn or the world 
to admire. Knowledge, the inclined plane of power and the lever of 
liberty, hath gone abroad in our age, and it has awakened the world 
from the deep slumber of slavery in which it had reposed for ages — it 
hath roused it to its wrongs, and behold! thrones are crumbling and 
crowns crushing beneath the wheels of the car of the patriots and pioneers 
of liberty. The love of liberty is inherent in every creature that breathes 
and basks in the sunbeam of heaven — every animal that flies in the air, 
floats in the ocean, and ambulates the earth. The beautiful bird that 
droops its plumage in the cage pines for the open field and flowery 
grove, where it may sing its song to its paramour, and lave its pinions 
in the light of heaven. Who has not seen the tear start from the eye, 
and listened to the anguish of that gentle creature which gives us its 
milk, as it mourned over the offspring of its love, immolated on the altar 
of the rapacious appetite of man? The meanest reptile of the field, 
or the noblest beast of the forest, either flies in terror from its tyrant, 
or repels the oppression that would rob its free limbs of liberty. Who 
hath not seen the majestic lion, the noblest of his nature, strike, in his 
shame, the bars of his bondage ; and who hath not heard him groan in 
agony at his degraded destiny ? Who hath not heard of the huge ele- 
phant, whose noble and natural disposition is to protect the oppressed 
and punish the oppressor— the generous creature that never received a 
benefit without giving some token of gratitude, and never met an enemy 
without marking him for vengeance? 

The mind of man illuminated with knowledge naturally sighs to be 
free. Infernal tyranny, like the demon of desolation, hath for ages 
trampled on the glory of the world, and bowed in bondage the noblest 
of the earth. For some centuries, feudal despotism seems to have been 
emerging, like the phoenix, from the ashes of ages ; but the argus eye 
of liberty's eagle hath been watchful — the patriot hath seen the power 
of the tyrant prostrated, his grandeur degi'aded, and hath laughed him 
to scorn as he tumbled from his throne, and the very attributes of his 



76 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

greatness became the instruments of his inglorious fall ; the very splen- 
dours of his dignity only serving to cast a melancholy gloom on his 
disgrace. 

What is man, when his neck is beneath the foot of the despot, decked 
and adorned with the spoils of his own industry? Misery hath ever 
marked the march of despotism, and despotism hath ever darkened the 
sunlight of liberty and learning. Europe hath groaned for centuries 
under the yoke of oppression and the spirit which sprang from the 
entombed tyrants of the feudal times ; she hath sunk beneath the added 
chain which even infernal superstition had left unriveted. And will 
man, in ignorance, still continue to weep over his wrongs, and worship, 
through fear, his oppressor ? Nay ; the flame of revolution is bursting 
and blazing in the capitals of Europe ; a torrent more turbulent and 
terrible than Niagara is tumbling from the Pyrenees and the Alps ; the 
torch of civil war is streaming in the streets of those cities ; and the 
world looks on in amaze, as the splendid meteor of monarchy goes 
down, and the orb of emancipation lingers for a moment, to illuminate 
the ruins beneath it. Patriots are preaching, and, as a necessary conse- 
quence, tyrants are trembling for the stability of their thrones, which, 
in a moment, may be blasted ; and, for the safety of their empires, which, 
in a moment, may be metamorphosed. Patriot pilgrims have travelled 
to other climes, to propagate the doctrine of liberty. It hath been fore- 
told by one of these pilgrims, that despotism, ere long, must irrevocably 
meet its downfall. I mean Byron, the benevolent and brilliant Byron, 
who immolated his own life on the altar of the liberties of Greece, and 
left to posterity the melancholy memorials of his mind and his martyr- 
dom. Yes, Byron the benevolent, who aided Greece with his gold, and 
her congress with his counsels ; who gave her warriors a lesson of for- 
bearance, and, by his own beautiful example, taught the faithless Moslem 
to be merciful. As he was a lover of liberty, I admii-e him for his devo- 
tion and mourn over his doom. I have garlands for his grave, I have 
glory for his patriotism, pity for his foibles, and unfading laurels for his 
genius and his fame. Greece was the shrine of his glory ; Greece was the 
beacon of his boyish pleasures. The fame of her ancient philosophy 
had reached his ear; her forgotten temples, trophies, and triumphs 
mingled with his midnight reveries, and imparted a melancholy softness 
to his song. Peace be to his illustrious shade ! 

Liberty hath already erected her altars in the very gardens of the 
globe, and the genius of the world will, ere long, worship at her feet. 
France no longer mourns over the mausoleum of her liberties, nor weeps 
at the grave of her glory ; but, like time surveying the trophies of his 
triumphant arm, she stands upon the tombs of her tyrants^ and flourishes 
over the relics and fragments of fallen despotism. 

Let us pause again, for a moment, and contemplate that mighty trage- 
dian, the terrible scourge of Europe, who crushed, at his caprice, the 
thrones of the mighty, and dashed crowns, like playthings, from the 
heads of a whole hecatomb of tyrants. In his eye, tyranny had made 
a wilderness of the world, and solitude of society ; in his view, the very 
virtues and attributes of man had fallen before the idol of ambition and 



LIBERTY AND REVOLUTIONS. 77 

the ear of crime. So daring were his deeds in the path of desolation, 
and so brilliant the monuments and landmarks of his labours, that the 
wondering world knew not whether to censure or celebrate — to immor- 
talize or mourn. At the same time that he was the very angel of death 
to despotism, he was unsurpassed in usurpation and in the assumptioa 
of unacknowledged power. He not only made himself master of papal 
supremacy, and seated himself in the palace of the popes ; he not only 
made Paris the seat of the sciences and the arts, and crowned her the 
mistress of ail Europe ; but he stretched his subduing arm over Egypt 
and the isles, till the Arab and the Ethiop bowed in bondage, and the 
triumphs of Alexander became the trophies of the modern Hercules. 
Yet, wonderful paradox ! he was a friend to liberty ; and, like Alex- 
ander, who built seventy cities, he was a benefactor to man. 

The splendid works of Napoleon's genius will live, when even his 
fame, like a phantom, shall be seen through the long telescope of time. 
The very page of history which records the creations of his genius will 
be a mirror in which posterity will perceive the reflection of his fame, 
and his fortunate and fearful, and, may I not say, his unrivalled career. 

Is there any proof of this ? Let the sciences, let the arts, let archi- 
tecture answer. The genius of architecture, groaning for ages beneath 
the fragments of fallen Rome, was revived and reanimated to gaze 
with astonishment on that mighty work, the Simplon, and not more to 
admire that monument of the times than the lofty mind that achieved 
it. It was like his own giant genius, standing alone in its grandeur, 
unique in its sublimity, and too mighty to hold communion with the 
meaner objects that surrounded it. 

Phidias proposed to make a statue of Alexander out of Mount Athos, 
holding in one hand a beautiful river, embellished with bridges and vil- 
lages, and in the other a superb city, suspended midway, as it were, be- 
tween the grandeur of the earth and the glory of heaven. The idea 
was magnificently sublime in its conception ; and the work would have 
been wonderfully grand in its creation and execution. It would have 
been almost an hyperbole on the plastic hand of heaven ; it would have 
been almost a mockery of the majesty of the Creator; and it would have 
been a model to the sculptor ever after. In wonder, it would have ex- 
ceeded the walls of Babylon ; in its magnitude, durability, and pomp, it 
would have surpassed the pyramids of Egypt ; and in its curious creation, 
it would have far eclipsed even the wonderful Colossus at Rhodes. Yet, 
as it was only conceived, and not created, it cannot compare with the 
Simplon, a vast marble bridge, with its mountain base, and cloud-eapt 
battlements, carved out of the eternal adamant of the Alps. Around its 
wreathe.d summit the blue lightnings leap, and far below, gushing from 
the rocks, the roar of the torrent ascends, as it tumbles from chasm to 
chasm, dashing and dazzling the eye of the beholder, till it unites with 
another, and, with increased momentum, leaps into the foaming abyss 
below. This is not the revery of fancy, but the very picture of its own 
peerless sublimity. Hannibal, the glory of Carthage and the terror of 
Rome, crossed the same grand and gloomy barrier ; but he left no me- 
morial of his track, and no monument of his march. 



78 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

The reader must excuse me for so often alluding to and dwelling on 
tlie character of the great Alcides of Europe, the '' man without a model;" 
for he was emphatically the telegraph of the times in which he lived, 
and to posterity, of all that has transpired. 

But we will leave the great tragedian at his home of St. Helena ; we 
will leave him contemplating the spectres of his departed triumphs, as 
they rise from the tomb of his incarcerated glory. We will leave the 
high-priest of power to the silence and solitude of the grave, which hum- 
bles and covers alike the proud achievements of the patriot and the un- 
hallowed deeds of the despot. 

In France, liberty hath already lighted the funeral pyre of oppression, 
with a brand snatched from the former ruins of her temple, and con- 
signed her oppressors to the same dungeon which they had prepared for 
the patriot. But let her hands never reek with their blood. They have 
fallen, ay, fallen so low, that humanity cannot refuse a tear, nor pity the 
tribute of a sigh. Buried in the dark and solitary cells of St. Michael, 
on the coast of Normandy, they are for ever lost to the world ; their 
wives and their children stripped of wealth, of title, of honours, and pri- 
vileges, with no friend to mourn or alleviate their sorrows. Even the 
marriage tie, which bound them to the loved one of the earth, the charm 
of their existence, that too is dissolved, and all else, save a bare subsist- 
ence. Dead, and yet full of life ; buried, and yet conscious of the mise- 
ries of mortality. 

Such is patriotism's tribute to tyranny, and, such as it is, certainly 
just. What a lesson is their fate calculated to teach to the tools of ty- 
rants ! Even Cardinal Wolsey, the pander of a prince, whose heart was 
adamant, fell not from such a height, stained with such crimes, as these, 
the champions of the gray-headed Charles. But well may they sympa- 
thize with him, and with him exclaim, 

father abbot, 
An old man, broken with the storms of state, 
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye : 
Give him a little earth for charity ! 

From sunny France, already roused from the sleep of slavery, let us 
turn, in tears, to unhappy Ireland, the home of patriotism, and of the 
proudest virtues that deck the mind or adorn the human heart. Ireland, 
the clime of generosity and reason; of grossness and grandeur. Ay, let 
us turn to that isle of the ocean, where nature seems to have scattered 
all her beauties and blandishments, and sown, in her profusion, all the 
elements of talent and turpitude. That isle, the very Eden of eloquence, 
and the very cradle of all that is calculated to shine ; the birthplace of 
O'Connell, Curran, and Phillips; of Wolf Tone, and Wellington, and 
Goldsmith, and Emmet — that land still mourns her unmitigated mise- 
ries, still groans beneath the yoke of servitude and toil. 

I had rather be like O'Connell, throned in the hearts of his country- 
men, than wear the robe of that royalty that stamps her sons traitors, if 
they murmur at the mandates of tyranny. But the daring sons of Ire- 
land and of liberty have attempted to tear asunder the cords of tyranny 
which bound them, and alas ! the blood of many a patriotic heart has 



LIBERTY AND REVOLUTIONS. 79 

paid the penalty of outraged royalty. Eramet, the eloquent and un- 
daunted Emmet, died on the scaffold, the victim of valour and of the ven- 
geance of imperial pride. His daring hand aspired to throw off the 
yoke, and gather for himself the unfading laurels of liberty; but the bea- 
con blazed too soon ; and the blinking buzzard of oppression saw the 
light of its own too precipitate pyre. Alas ! fancy portrays that inte- 
resting and ill-fated youth in his dungeon, leaning in melancholy mood 
against the wall which he is never to pass but as a criminal or a corpse. 
See ! the massive door swings back, and his beautiful betrothed, his 
weeping and widowed love, rushes wildly to his arms, and their souls, 
for a moment, are mingled in the ecstasy of misery ! " Oh, vindicate 
my memory,^' he cries, "when T am mouldering in the tomb of detrac- 
tion ! Remember me in solitude and society ; and sometimes visit the 
scenes where we have so often wandered ; and weep for him who can 
wake not at your sorrows, nor worship your charms I" Fancy, too, por- 
trays the brave Tone, the dauntless Theodore Wolf Tone, condemned to 
the dungeon which holds the despot, to pine and perish by his own hand. 
But the theme is too melancholy ; his sorrows are too touching and tear- 
ful to be related to the gay. 

Erin ! what have thy children not suffered for thee ! Though 
they have emerged from the mountain of bigotry and religious persecu- 
tion, they still groan under the pressure of civil disability. 

Did I say religious persecution ? Oh, no, religion, heaven-descended 
religion, never was a despot ; never persecuted and oppressed. ^Tis hers 
to soothe and to soften ; the harbinger of liberty and love. It is the 
base-begotten bigotry, sprung from the adulterous connection of church 
and state, that walks abroad in royal robes, and assumes in itself the at- 
tributes of the arbiter of faith ; — it is this, which for ages hath oppressed 
the Eden isle, and persecuted the altar at which her sons bowed down in 
adoration. Unhappy Ireland ! while her heroic sons have poured into 
the lap of England her valour and virtue, her talent and treasure, that she 
might carry her thunder triumphantly over the ocean ; while her brave 
children have battled for liberty in foreign lands, and seen the flag of 
victory waving proudly on the walls of the tyrant, she alone still pines 
in bondage, her chain alone remains unbroken. Never can the Ameri- 
can, while memory remains to record their deeds, forget the heroic devo- 
tion and daring intrepidity of the heroes of Ireland, during our own 
unrivalled revolution ; that revolution which will continue, to the latest 
posterity, the model of all attempts at emancipation. The feats per- 
formed by the sons of Erin at Germantown and Trenton, at Brandy wine, 
and Baltimore, and Orleans, shall be treasured on memory's marble ta- 
blet, and transmitted, in golden characters, to the monument which records 
the nation's renown and the decalogue of liberty. And here, in this 
garden of the West, where revolution first rose in fire, and went down in 
freedom with the ruins and relics of oppression ; here, in this western 
world, where the beacon of liberty first blazed, and the rainbow of free- 
dom rose on the cloud of war ; yes, here, in this land of aspiring hope, 
where innocence is equity and talent is triumph, the ''exile of Erin" 
finds a home, where his youth may be crowned with happiness, and 



80 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

the sun of life's evening go down in the unmolested hope of immor- 
tality. 

How must the guardian angel of Erin mourn, and turn with tearful 
eye, when she beholds England sending her ministers of mercy, her 
light of religion and learning, to other climes, and sanctioning the free- 
dom of other countries, yet turning with a cold glance to the very Eden 
of the ocean ; to Ireland^ the clime of glorious recollections and illus- 
trious renown ! 

Nor has the bosom of Ireland alone been blasted by the simoom "of 
slavery. Turn to Poland, and it is apparent ; turn to Italy, and it is 
evident. There tyranny has been thundered from the fallen throne of 
the Poles, and not less from the palace of the popes, reared upon the 
ruins of the once glorious city of the Csesars. Italy, the clime of every 
science that can accomplish, and every deed that could adorn ; the first 
dream of the scholar, and the last track of the traveller, has been sunk 
for ages, beneath not only the ruins of her columns and temples, but 
even the trophies of her intelligence. And Poland, the clime of Kos- 
ciusko and Sobieski, hath not only seen her patriots doomed to the loath- 
some dungeon and languishing in the deserts of Siberia ; not only seen 
her rack fed to fatness, and her princes made to grace the pageant of 
Catharine ; but she hath seen herself the victim of legal plunder and 
legitimate piracy. She hath seen the czar idly surveying her trampled 
pride, like the pirate Gibbs contemplating the ruins of Carthage. 

But Poland hath at length arisen, and rent asunder, with a giant arm, 
her inglorious chains; and she hath met the locust legioas of the auto- 
crat, who hath threatened to immolate whole hecatombs of her traitors 
on the pyre of rapacious ambition. She is in arms ; and even her maids 
and matrons have given up their brilliants ; and their beautiful wives, 
and women of all ranks, turned out in the tide of war. Oh, for another 
Kosciusko, to lead her beauties to battle and her sons to liberty ! But, 
alas ! the friend of Washington lies low on the pillow of fame ; he 
sleeps between the tombs of the illustrious Sobieski and Poniatowski. 
He hears not the call of his brave countrymen, nor the clash and death- 
song of battle : 

His blade leaps not at the long, loud cry, 
Nor starts and streams with a crimson dye : 
He shouts no " Charge !" nor the brave line leads ; 
For he lies in the grave of his glorious deeds. 

Ay, he slumbers in glory's grave ; he lies mute and motionless, but 
mighty still. The hero, bowing at his shrine, feels the inspiration of 
his valour, and battles for liberty. His very name is the watchword of 
war ; and were his statue fixed upon the walls of "Warsaw, the last Pole 
would perish or place the flag of triumph on the temple of Freedom. 
He would wrap the Russians in the fires of the capitol, and fall him- 
self beneath the ruins, or rise in majesty, in the car of glorious 
emancipation. 

The brave of all nations are about to erect a monument over the re- 
mains of Kosciusko. But such a man needs no monument, for his feme 
is immortal. His monument is mental, more lasting than marble, and 



THE GRAVE. 81 

more immutable tlian brass. The page of history is his cenotaph, which 
time cannot tarnish or tyranny obliterate ; the page of history is the 
record of his renown, with which posterity shall be familiar; and the 
approval of posterity shall be his reward, which time nor tyrants can 
confiscate. 



THE GRAVE. 

BY IRVING. 



Oh, the grave ! the grave ! It buries every error, covers every defect, 
extinguishes every resentment. From its peaceful bosom spring none 
but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look down upon 
the grave even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that 
ever he should have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies 
mouldering before him ! 

But the grave of those we loved ; what a place for meditation ! Then 
it is that we call up, in long review, the whole history of virtue and 
gentleness, and the thousand endearments lavished upon us almost un- 
heeded in the daily intercourse of intimacy; then it is that we dwell 
upon the tenderness, the solemn, awful tenderness of the parting scene ; 
the bed of death, with all its stifled griefs, its noiseless attendance, its 
mute, watchful assiduities ; the last testimonies of expiring love ; the 
feeble, fluttering, thrilling, oh ! how thrilling the pressure of the hand ; 
the fond looking of the glazing eye, turning upon us even from the 
threshold of existence; the faint, faltering accents struggling in death 
to give one more assurance of affection ! 

Ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate ! There settle the 
accounts with thy conscience for every past benefit unrequited — every 
past endearment unregarded, of that departed being who can never, 
never return to be soothed by thy contrition ! 

If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul or a 
furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent. If thou art a 
husband, and hast ever caused the fond bosom that ventured its whole 
happiness in thy arms, to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy 
truth. If thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged, in thought, word, 
or deed, the spirit that generously confided in thee ; if thou art a lover, 
and hast ever given one unmerited pang to that true heart that now lies 
cold and still beneath thy feet; then be sure. that every unkind look, 
every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come thronging back 
upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul ; then be sure 
that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the grave, and utter 
the unheard groan, and pour the unavailing tear, — more bitter because 
unheard and unavailing. 

Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of nature 
about the grave; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, with these 
tender, yet futile tributes of regret ; but take warning by the bitterness 
of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and be more faithful and 
affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living. 

6 



82 



PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



LOVE'S IMMOKTAL WREATH. 

'Wlio can separate hearts that have united, or divide waters that have met and mingled into one ?" 



Think not, beloved, time can break 

The spell around us cast ; 
Or absence from my bosom take 

The memory of the past. 
My love is not that sQvery mist 
From stimmer blooms by sunbeams kiss'd — 

Too fugitive to last : 
A fadeless flower, it still retains 
The brightness of its early stains. 

Nor burns it like the raging fire 

In tainted breast which glows ; 
All wild and thorny as the brier 

Without its opening rose : 
A gentler, holier love is mine. 
Unchangeable and firm, while thine 

Is pure as mountain snows ; 
Nor yet has passion dared to breathe 
A spell o'er Love's immortal wreath. 

And now, when grief has dimm'd thine eye, 

And sickness made thee pale, 
Think'st thou I could the mourner fly. 

And leave thee to the gale ? 
Oh, no !— may all those dreams depart 
Hope sheds upon a youthful heart. 

If now my bosom fail. 
Or leave thee, when the storm comes on. 
To bear its turbulence alone. 

The ivy round some lofty pile, 

Its twining tendril flings; 
Though fled from thence be pleasure's smile, 

It yet the fonder clings ; 
As lonelier still becomes the place. 



The warmer is its fond embrace. 

More firm its verdant rings; 
As if it loved its shade to rear. 
O'er one devoted to despair. 

Thus shall my bosom cling to thine. 

Unchanged by gliding years ; 
Through fortune's rise, or her decline, 

In sunsliine, or in tears ; 
And though between us oceans roll. 
And rooks divide us, still my soul 

Can feel no jealous fears. 
Confiding in a heart like tliine, 
Love's vincontaminated shrine ! 

To me, though bathed in sorrow's dew, 

The dearer far art thou ; 
I loved thee when thy woes were few. 

And can I alter now ? 
That face, in joy's bright hour, was fair — 
More beautiful since grief was there. 

Though somewhat pale thy brow; 
And be it mine to soothe the pain 
Thus pressing on the heart and brain. 

Yes, love ! my breast, at sorrow's call, 

Shall tremble like thine own; 
If from those eyes the teardrops fall. 

They shall not fall alone. 
Our souls, like heaven's aerial bow. 
Blend every light within their glow. 

Of joy or sorrow known: 
And grief, divided with thy heart, 
■yS'ere sweeter far than joys apart. 

Albany Advertiser. 



THE AMERICAN EAGLE. 



Bird of the clitf! thou art soaring on high; 

Thou hast swept the dense cloud from thy path in 

the sky ; 
Thou hast breasted the storm in thy heavenward 

flight. 
And fix'd thy bright eye on the fountain of light ; 
Thou hast braved the keen flash of the lightning in 

sport. 
And poised thy strong wing where the thunders 

resort ; 
Thou hast folio w'd the stars in their pathways above, 
And chased the wild meteors wherever they rove. 

Bird of the forest! thou lov'st the deep shade, 
■Where the oak spreads its boughs in the mountain 

and glade ; 
■Wtere the thick-cluster'd ivy encircles the pine. 
And the proud elm is wreath'd by the close-clinging 

vine; 
Thou hast tasted the dew of the untrodden plain. 
And foUow'd the streams as they roll to the main ; 
Thou hast dipp'd thy swift wing in the feathery spray, 
Where the earth-quaking cataract roars on its way. 



Bird of free skies ! thou hast sail'd on the cloud. 
Where the battle raged fierce, and the cannon roar'd 

loud; 
Thou hast stoop'd to the earth when the foeman was 

slain. 
And waved thy wide wing o'er the blood-sprinkled 

plain ; 
Thou hast soar'd where the banner of freedom was 

borne; 
Thou hast gazed at the far dreaded lion in scorn, 
Thy beak has been wet in the blood of otir foes, 
■When the home of the brave has been left to repose. 

Bird of the clime in which liberty d wells. 

Nurse the free soul in thy cliff-shelter'd dells ! 

Hover above the strong heart in its pride. 

Whisper of those who for freedom have died ! 

Bear up the free-nurtured spirit of man. 

Till it soar like thine own, through its earth-bounded 

span ! 
Waft it above, o'er the mountain and wave — 
Spread thy free wing o'er the patriot's grave ! 

Southern Religious Telegraph, 



ELOQUENCE OF PATRICK HENRY. 83 

ELOQUENCE OF PATKICK HENEY. 

BY WILLIAM WIRT. 

Hook was a Scotchman, a man of wealth, and suspected of being 
unfriendly to the American cause. During the distresses of the Ame- 
rican army, consequent on the joint invasion of Cornwallis and Phillips, 
in ITSl, a Mr. Venable, an army commissary, had taken two of Hook's 
steers for the use of the troops. The act had not been strictly legal ; 
and on the establishment of peace. Hook, on the advice of Mr. Cowan, 
a gentleman of some distinction in the law, thought proper to bring an 
action of trespass against Mr. Venable, in the District Court of New 
London. •. Mr. Henry appeared for the defendant, and is said to have 
deported himself in this cause to the infinite enjoyment of his hearers, 
the unfortunate Hook always excepted. After Mr. Henry became ani- 
mated in the cause, says a correspondent, he appeared to have complete 
control over the passions of the audience. At one time he excited their 
indignation against Hook — vengeance was visible in every countenance. 
Again, when he chose to relax, and ridicule him, the whole audience 
was in a roar of laughter. He painted the distresses of the American 
army, exposed almost naked to the rigour of a winter's sky, and mark- 
ing the frozen ground over which they trod with the blood of their 
unshod feet. "Yfhere was the man, who had an American heart in his 
bosom, who would not have thrown open his fields, his barn, his cellars, 
the doors of his house, and the portals of his breast, to have received 
with open arms, the meanest soldier in that little band of patriots ? 
Whore is the man ? There he stands — but whatever of the heart of 
the American beats in his bosom, you, gentlemen, are to be the judge." 
He carried the jury, by the power of his imagination, to the plains 
around York, the surrender of which had followed shortly after the act 
coaiplained of. He depicted the surrender in the most glowing and 
noble colours. The audience saw before their eyes the humiliation and 
dejection of the British as they marched out of their trenches. 

They saw the triumph which lighted up every patriot's face, and heard 
the shouts of victory, and the cry of '^ Washington and Libert3"," as it 
rung and echoed through the American ranks, and was reverberated from 
the hills and shores of the neighbouring river — '' But, hark ! What 
notes of discord are these, which disturb the general joy, and silence 
the ?rclamations of victory ? They are the notes of John Hook, hoarsely 
bawling through the American camp, Beef! heef!" ) i 

The whale audience were convulsed. A particular incident will give 
a better idea of the effect than any general description. The clerk of 
the court, unable to command himself, and unwilling to commit any 
breach of decorum in his place, rushed out of the court-house and threw 
himself upon the grass, in the most violent paroxysms of laughter, 
where he was rolling, when Hook, with very diifercnt feelings, came out 
for relief in the yard also. ''Jemmy Steptoe," said he to the clerk, 
"what the devil ails ye, mon?" Mr. Steptoe could only say that he 



84 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

could not lielp it. " Never mind ye," said Hook, ^' wait till Billy Cowan 
gets np ; he'll show him the la' !" Mr. Cowan, howevei-, was so com- 
pletely overwhelmed by the torrent which bore upon his client, that, 
when he arose to reply to Mr. Henry, he was scarcely able to make an 
intellio-ible or audible remark. The cause was decided almost by accla- 
mation. The jury retired for form's sake, and instantly returned with a 
verdict for the defendant. Nor did the effect of Mr. Henry's speech 
stop here. The people were so highly excited by the tory audacity of 
such a suit, that Hook began to hear around him a cry more terrible 
than that of beef- — it was the cry of tar and featliers — from the applica- 
tion of which, it is said, nothing saved him but a precipitate flight and 
the speed of his horse. 



SINGULAR ADVENTURE OF A BRITISH SOLDIER. 

In the year 1779, when the war with America was conducted with 
great spirit upon that continent, a division of the British army was en- 
camped on the banks of a river, and in a position so favoured by nature 
that it was difficult for any military art to surprise it. War in America 
was rather a species of hunting than a regular campaign. " If you 
fight with art," said Washington to the soldiers, "you are sure to be 
defeated. Acquire discipline enough for concert, and the uniformity 
of combined attack, and our country will prove the best of the en- 
gineers." So true was this maxim of the American general that the 
English soldiers had to contend with little else. The Americans had 
incorporated the Indians into their ranks, and had made them useful in 
a species of war to which their habits of life had peculiarly fitted them. 
They sallied out of their impenetrable forests and jungles, and, with 
their arrows and tomahawks, committed daily waste upon the British 
army, surprising their sentinels, cutting off their stragglers, and, even 
when the alarm was given, and pursuit commenced, they fled with a 
swiftness that the speed of cavalry could not overtake, into rocks and 
fastnesses whither it was dangerous to follow them. In order to limit, 
as far as possible, this species of war, in which there was so much loss 
and so little honour, it was the custom with every regiment to extend 
its outposts to a great distance beyond the encampments; to station 
sentinels in the woods ; and keep a constant guard around the main 
body. A regiment of foot was, at this time, stationed upon the confines 
of the boundless Savannah. Its particular office was to guard every 
avenue of approach to the main body ; the sentinels whose post pene- 
trated into the woods were supplied by the ranks, and the service of 
this regiment was thus more hazardous than that of any other. Its loss 
was likewise greater. The sentinels were perpetually surprised on their 
posts by the Indians, and, what was most astonishing, they were borne 
■off their stations without communicating any alarrn, or being heard of 
after. Not a trace was left of the manner in which tl>ey had been con- 
veyed away, except that, upon one or two occasions, a few drops of blood 
had appeared upon the leaves which covered the ground. Many im- 



SINGULAR ADVENTURE OF A BRITISH SOLDIER. 85 

puted this unaccountable disappearance to treachery, and suggested, as 
an unanswerable argument, that the men thus surprised might, at least, 
have fired their muskets and communicated the alarm to the contiguous 
posts. Others, however, who could not be brought to consider it as 
treachery, were content to receive it as a mystery, which time would 
explain. 

One morning, the sentinels having been stationed as usual over night, 
the guard went at sunrise to relieve a post which extended a considerable 
distance into the wood. The sentinel was gone; the surprise was great ; 
but the circumstance had occurred before. They left another man, and 
departed, wishing him better luck. " You need not be afraid," said the 
man, with warmth, '•'■ I shall not desert." The relief company returned 
to the guard-house. The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and, 
at the appointed time, the guard again marched to relieve the post. To 
their inexpressible astonishment, the man was gone ! They searched 
around the post, but no traces could be found of his disappearance. It 
was necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ever, should 
not remain unoccupied : they were compelled to leave another man, and 
returned, ruminating on this strange circumstance, to the guard-house. 
The superstition of the soldiers was awakened, and the terror ran through 
the regiment. The colonel, being apprized of the occurrence, signified 
his intention to accompany the guard when they relieved the sentinel 
they had left. At the appointed time, they all marched together ; and 
again, to their unutterable wonder, they found the post vacant, and the 
man gone ! Under these circumstances, the colonel hesitated whether he 
should station a whole company here, or if he should again submit the 
post to a single sentinel. The cause of these repeated disappearances 
of men, whose courage and honesty were never suspected, must be dis- 
covered ; and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained 
by persisting in the old method. Three brave men were now lost to the 
regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth seemed nothing less than 
giving him up to destruction. The poor fellow whose turn it was to 
take the station, though a man in other respects of unconquerable reso- 
lution, trembled from head to foot. " I must do my duty," said he to 
the officer ; " I know that, but I should like to lose my life with more 
credit." '■'■ I will leave no man," said the colonel, " against his will." 
A man immediately stepped from the ranks, and desired to take the 
post. Every mouth commended his resolution. " I will not be taken 
alive," said he, " and you shall hear of me on the least alarm. At all 
events, I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a crow chatters 
or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when 
nothing is the matter ; you must take the chance of that, as the condi- 
tion of my making the discovery." The colonel applauded his courage, 
and told him he would be right to fire upon the least noise which was 
ambiguous. His comrades shook hands with him, and left him with a 
melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and v;-aited the 
event in the guard-house, with the most anxious curiosity. 

An hour had elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge 
of the musket^ when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The guard 
H 



86 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the colonel and some 
of the most experienced officers of the regiment. As they approached 
the post, they saw the man advancing towards them, dragging another 
man on the ground by the hair of the head. When they came up to 
him, it appeared to be an Indian whom he had shot. An explanation 
was immediately required. " I told your honour," said the man, "• that 
I should fire if I heard, the least noise. The resolution I had taken has 
saved my life, and led to the discovery. I had not been long on my 
post, when I heard a rustling at some short distance : I looked, and saw 
an American hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the 
ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees, and among the 
leaves. As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it 
for some minutes ; but being on the constant alarm and expectatio^ of 
attack, and scarcely knowing what to consider a real cause of apprehen- 
sion, or not, I kept my eyes vigilantly fixed upon it, and marked its 
progress among the trees; still there was no need to give the alarm, 
and my thoughts were, notwithstanding, directed to danger from another 
quarter. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular, to see the 
animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick coppice, immediately 
behind my post. I therefore kept my eyes more constantly fixed upon 
it, and, as it was now within a few yards of the coj)pice, I hesitated 
whether I should fire. My comrades, thought.I, will laugh at me for 
alarming them by shooting a pig ! I had almost resolved to let it alone, 
when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an 
unusual spring. I no longer hesitated ; I took my aim, discharged my 
piece, and the animal was instantly stretched before me, with a groan 
which I conceived to be that of a human creature. I went up to it, 
and judge my astonishment when I found I had killed an Indian ! He 
had enveloped himself with the skin of one of these wild hogs so art- 
fully and completely, his hands and feet were so entirely concealed in 
it, and his gait and appearance was so exactly correspondent to that of 
the animal's, that, imperfectly as they were always seen through the 
trees and jungles, the disguise could not be penetrated at a distance, and 
scarcely discovered upon the nearest aspect. He was armed with a 
dagger and a tomahawk." Such was the substance of this man's relation. 
The cause of the disappearance of the other sentinels was now apparent. 
The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the cop- 
pice ; watched the moment when they could throw it off; burst upon 
the sentinels without previous alarm, and, too quick to give them an 
opportunity to discharge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them, 
and bore their bodies away, which they concealed at some distance in 
the leaves. 



Though the world is wide enough for every one to take a little, and 
there appears no reason why we jostle and make one another unhappy 
as we pass along ; yet so it is, we are continually thwarting and crossing 
each other at right angles ; and some lose all sense and memory of that 
temper which governed us at oar first setting out. 



THE ROSE-BUD. 87 



THE ROSE-BUD. 

I MARKED the Tose-hud of the spring. It was beautiful in the morn- 
ing. It sparkled with the dripping dew ; then drooped with the de- 
scending rain. It hung down in modesty, and seemed to shrink from 
the approaching storm. It remained uninjured, while the gnarled oak 
was splintered by the lightning, and the towering pine uptorn by the. 
tornado. With calmness, I was reflecting upon the moral impressed 
upon the senses by the sublime workings of nature, when the storm 
suddenly subsided. The sun darted its cheering rays through the dis- 
persing clouds ; and light, and warmth, and serenity again delighted 
the earth. The pine and the oak no more revived. Their foliage, 
branches, and trunks lay scattered to decay. With genial heat, the rose- 
bud expanded its crimson petals and poured forth its fragrance in 
gratitude to the sun ; delighting the eye of the beholder, and loading 
the atmosphere with its reviving perfume. I marked it, as it rose upon 
its stem and expanded its blushing fl^ower. To my imagination, it 
seemed animated with consciousness, and to smile, as they passed, upon 
every beholder, with entreaties to spare it yet a little while, that it 
might wave in the sunshine, display its graceful form, its glowing hues, 
and pour upon the altar of the air and upon the wandering zephyrs its 
thankful incense. And yet, thought I, would not its vanity be mortified 
were it doomed to bloom in a wilderness, instead of the parterre, of 
which it is the grace and the ornament ? 

Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, 
The deep, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear; 
Pull many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 

Its entreaties spoke to my feelings too plainly to be disregarded. I 
was captivated. I suffered no rude hand to pluck it or offer violence 
to its modest charms. I placed my seat near the parterre, and watched 
the opening beauties of my little friend. The day passed; and yet 
another and another witnessed its loveliness. I gazed upon and ad- 
mired, until my imagination inflamed ; I thought it immortal. Others 
saw it toitJierinff ; I knew it not; saw it not; believed it not! Alas! 
the laws of nature are immutable. To be changed is stamped upon all 
her works ! "All that is made must be destroyed! all that is born 
must die !" The fourth day came, and my eyes were opened. The 
blossom had withered, and the leaves of the flower were strewed on the 
ground. All its graceful beauty and fragrance were blown away by the 
winds, and nothing remained of so much loveliness. Weep ! child of 
mortality, that Death is in the world ! And yet, without Death, how 
" shall all tears be wiped away from our eyes V 



If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person 
of whom you ought never to speak. 



FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



LOVE. 



With man, love is never a passion of such intensity and sincerity as 
with woman. She is a creature of sensibility, existing only in the out- 
pourings and sympathies of her emotions ; every earthly blessing, nay, 
every heavenly hope, will be sacrificed for her affections. She will 
leave the sunny home of her childhood, the protecting roof of her kin- 
dred, forget the counsels of her sire, the admonishing voice of that 
mother on whose bosom her head has been pillowed, forsake all she has 
clung to in her years of girlish simplicity, do all that woman can do 
consistently with honour, and throw herself into the arms of the man 
she idolizes. He that would forsake a woman, after these testimonies 
of affection, is too gross a villain to be called a man. The wrath of 
Heaven will pursue him, the brand of Cain is upon his brow, and the 
curse of Judas will rankle at his heart. Unrequited love with man is 
to him never a cause of perpetual misery ; other dreams will flow in 
upon his imagination; the abstraction from business, the meteor of 
ambition, or the pursuit of wealth will win him away from his early 
infatuation. It is not thus with woman. Although the scene may 
change, and years, long, withering, and lingering years, steal away the 
rose from the cheek of beauty, the ruins of a breaking heart cannot be 
amalgamated ; the memories of that idle vision cannot be obliterated 
from the soul; she pines, nerves herself anew with pride, and pines 
away again, until her gentle spirit bids adieu to the treacheries of earth, 
and flits away into the bosom of her Grod. 



SISTERS AND MOTHERS. 

These are ties, which, like the invisible strings of conscience, bind 
man to the world of kindly affection, and are the last things forgotten 
when one leaves life. The married situation onai/ be one of pure and un- 
interrupted felicity; there mai/ be no cloud in its whole happy horizon; 
it may be ever sunny, and flowers spring in it at every season of the age. 
But even these happy ones, who are in this clime of bliss, remember long 
and late the claims of a sister or a mother to their best affections. In 
the life of the solitary and single, those who are said to be doomed to an 
enmd of loneliness, the claims of a sister and a mother should hold 
strongly, not only upon their feelings, but duties. Those kindnesses 
which men bestow upon their offspring and their wives, who possess 
each, and in whom their best views are concentrated, in the bachelor 
are given to the (almost) sacred names which constitute this heading. 
In loving a sister, there is none of that earthliness of passion which de- 
grades the heart — in the devotion due to a mother, there is none of the 
selfishness of men. The feelings inspired by both sister and mother are 
all derived from sources as pure as the Divinity that inspired them. 



GAMBLING. — WOMAN. 89 



GAMBLINa. 



The finished gambler has no heart. The club with which he herds 
would meet, though the place of rendezvous were the chamber of the 
dying ; they would meet, though it were an apartment in the charnel- 
house. Not even the death of kindred can affect the gambler. He 
would play upon his brother's cofan ; he would play upon his fathei-'s 
sepulchre. 

Youder see that wretch, prematurely old in infirmity as well as sin. 
He is the father of a family. The mother of his children, lovely in her 
tears, strives with the tenderest assiduities to restore his temperance, his 
love of home, and the long lost charms of domestic life. She pursues 
him, with her entreaties, to his haunts of vice ; she reminds him of his 
children ; she tells him of their virtues; of their sorrows; of their wants; 
and she adjures him, by the love of them, and by the love of Grod, to re- 
pent, and return. Vain attempt ! she might as well adjure the whirl- 
wind ; she might as well entreat the tiger. 

The brute has no feeling left. He turns upon her in the spirit of the 
demons with which he is possessed. He curses his children and her 
who bore them; and as he prosecutes his game, he fills the intervals with 
imprecations on his Maker ; imprecations borrowed from the dialect of 
devils, and uttered with a tone that befits only the organs of the damned ! 
And yet in this monster there once dwelt the spirit of a man. He had 
talents, he had honour, he had even faith. He might have adorned the 
senate, the bar, the altar. But, alas ! his was a faith that saveth not. 
The gaming-table has robbed him of it, and of all things else that are 
worth possessing. What a frightful change of character ! What a tre- 
mendous wreck is the soul of man in ruins ! Return, disconsolate 
mother, to thy dwelling, and be submissive ; thou shalt become a widow, 
and thy children fatherless. Further efforts will be useless, Grod has 
forsaken him — nor will angels weep or watch over him any longer. 



WOMAN. 

Perhaps a more just and beautiful compliment was never paid to wo- 
man than the following, by Judge Story : — 

To the honour, to the eternal honour of the sex, be it said, that in the 
path of duty no sacrifice is with them too high or too dear. Nothing is 
with them impossible, but to shrink from what love, honour, innocence, 
and religion recjuire. The voice of pleasure or of power may pass by un- 
heeded — but the voice of affliction never. Tlie chamber of the sick, the 
pillow of the dying, the vigils of the dead, the altars of religion never 
missed the presence or the sympathies of Woman! Timid though she be, 
and so delicate that the winds of heaven may not too roughly visit her, 
on such occasions she loses all sense of danger and assumes a preterna- 
tural courage, which knows not and fears not consequences. Then she 
displays that undaunted spirit which neither courts difficulties nor evades 
them ; that resignation which utters neither murmurs nor regret ; and 
that patience in suffering which seems victorious even over death itself. 

H 2 



90 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE MAJESTY OF THE OCEAN. 

BT PROTEUS. 

There is society wliere none intrudes 
By the deep sea, and music in its roar. 

I KNOW of nothing, in the whole compass of Byron's varied produc- 
tions, which equals, in sublimity of conception and vividness of colouring, 
his portraitures of the ocean. Though, for the most part, the bold and 
masterly touches of genius are displayed in every thing which came from 
his hand, yet, when his imagination fixes upon the " dark -blue sea," 
he appears to surpass all other poets. As you muse over his immortal 
sketches, in the hush of midnight and by the waning lamp, the wild note 
of the sea-bird and the low murmur of whispering waters and their sil- 
very light — or the death-shriek of the drowning mariner, and the roar of 
billows, together with the lurid and appalling wave-flash of the reflected 
lightning, break in upon the silence and dimness of your chamber. Time 
and space are annihilated by the magic of his numbers, and you feel 
yourself snatched away to the far-oif sea, and regaled by its fresh, cool 
breezes as you go bounding over its glorious expanse. He was empha- 
tically the poet of the ocean, for the proudest march of his genius was 
upon its " mountain waves." He appears to have possessed a delight in 
its wild scenes, amounting almost to a passionate fondness. In his boy- 
hood, seated on some retired crag, he hung over it, hour after hour of the 
still summer evenings, and felt, in the excitement of his glowing fancy, 
a yearning towards it ; and when in after years the ties which held him 
to his country were severed, he flew to its trackless solitudes as to a re- 
fuge and a home. Like a proud vessel, which, after having been be- 
calmed and ingloriously confined in some narrow bay, has gained the 
broad deep and the rushing gale, the indignant bard swept forth in the 
buoyancy of freedom, rejoicing as the breeze freshened, and exulting in 
the rudest commotion of the elements. At that stirring hour he could 
" laugh to flee away" even from the land of his fathers, for in the thrill 
of his emotions there was less of sadness than of joy. I can see him in 
imagination, as he strode the deck, now soothing the sorrows of his little 
page, and now sweeping his deep-toned lyre as he poured his farewell 
to the receding shores, and a welcome to the waves that came dashing 
onward from the far stretch of the seaward horizon. The void in his 
heart, which no father's love and no mother's endearing tenderness had 
preoccupied with images of parental aff"ection, and which had been widen- 
ing from his boyhood by the death or estrangement of early associates, 
was now filled with the beauty and stirring majesty of the great deep. 
The loneliness that brooded like a dark spirit over his melancholy bosom 
was dispelled for a season by the strange grandeur of the prospects around 
him ; and in the romance of poetical enthusiasm, he regard'^ed the ocean as a 
living and intelligent existence. As he bent over the prow in the gentle 
moonlight, he discoursed with it as with a friend, and, in its billowy 



THE MAJESTY OF THE OCEAN. 91 

commotions, lie gazed upon if^with mingled reverence and joy. And 
who has not experienced such sensations, even when far away from the 
ocean, while his thoughts were hovering over its azure domains ? I re- 
member what a novel and indescribable feeling used to steal upon me, 
when a boy, whenever I fell in with Virgil's description of the sea. I 
had never been beyond the mountain boundaries of my native valley — 
never enjoyed even a remote prospect of the sublime object of his inspi- 
ration, and, therefore, my young fancy was introduced in those passages, 
to a fairy world, and left free to expatiate, amid the glorious imagery of 
the Mantuan bard. After reading of Palinurus or the sweet-voiced Si- 
rens, I have gazed at the little lake, which lies embosomed in the green 
hills near my father's cottage, till my eyes grew dim, and its rippling 
surface seemed to stretch away to a misty and limitless expanse, whilst 
the sweep of the winds, among the rough crags and pine-forests of the 
neighbouring mountains, uttei-ed to my imagination the voice of the 
refunding deep. But how far short of reality, both in grandeur and 
beauty, did I find the conceptions of fancy, when I beheld the object 
itself, some years after. My first view of it was on a clear, but gusty 
afternoon of autumn. The winds had been abroad for many hours ; and 
as I looked seaward from the high promontory, and beheld the long rough 
surges rushing towards me, and listened to their wild roar as they were 
flung back from the eaverned battlements at my feet, I felt as if the pil- 
lars of the universe were shaken around me, and stood awed and abased 
before the majesty of excited nature. Since then, I have been on lofty 
precipices, while the thunder-cloud was bursting below me — have leaned 
over the trembling brink of Niagara, and walked within its awful cham- 
bers, but the thrill of that moment has never returned. The feeling of 
awe, however, gradually gave place to an intense but pleasing emotion, 
and I longed to spring away from the tame and trodden earth, to that 
wild, mysterious world, whose strange scenes broke so magnificently upon 
my vision. No wonder that our first roving impulses are towards the 
ocean. No Wonder that the romance and adventurous spirit of youth 
deems lightly of hardship and peril, when aroused by its stirring pre- 
sentations. There is something so winning in the multiplied superstitions 
of its hardy wanderers — something so fascinating in its calm beauty, and 
so animating in its stormy recklessness, that the ties of country and 
kindred sit looser at our hearts, as curiosity whispers of its unseen won- 
ders. In after years, when the bloom of existence has lost much of its 
brightness, when curiosity has become enervated, and the powers of the 
imagination palsied, where do we sooner return to renew their former 
pleasing excitement, than to our remembered haunts by the ocean ? We 
leave behind us all the splendour and magnificence of art, all the volup- 
tuous gratifications of society — we break from the banquet and the dance, 
and fly away to the solitary cliffs, where the sea-bird hides her nest. 
There the cares, perplexities, and rude jostlings of opposing interests 
are for a while forgotten. There the turmoil of human intercourse dis- 
quiets no longer. There the sweat and dust of the crowded city are dis- 
pelled as the cool sea-breeze comes gently athwart our feverish brow. 
In the exhilaration of the scene, the blood gathers purer at the heart — 



92 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

its pulse-beat is softer, and we feel once more a newness of life, amount- 
ing almost to a transport. Delightful remembrances, that lie buried up 
under the dross of the past, are reanimated, and the charm, the peace, 
and the freshness of life's morning innocence again finds in our bosom a 
welcome and a home. The elastic spring of boyhood is in our step as 
we chase the receding wave along the white beach, or leap wildly into 
its glassy depths. In the low, billowy murmur that steals out upon the 
air, our ear catches the pleasant, but long unheard music of other years, 
like the remembered voice of a departed companion ; and while leaning 
over some beetling crag, glorious visions pass thronging before our eyes, as, 
in fancy, we rove through the coral groves, where the mermaids have 
their emerald bower, or gaze at the hidden beauties, the uncoveted gems, 
and the glittering argosies that repose amid the stilly waters. The soul 
goes forth, as it were, to the hallowed and undefiled temples of nature, 
to be purified of its earthly contaminations. She takes to herself wings, 
and flies away to the '' uttermost parts of the sea," and even there she 
hears the voice of the Divinity, witnesses the manifestations of his 
power, experiences the kind guardianship of his presence, and returns 
cheered and invigorated to renew her weary pilgrimage. 

The ocean is a world by itself, presenting few analogies, either in form 
or scenery, with the continents it embraces. It seems to stand aloof 
from the dusty and beaten paths of human ambition in the dignity of 
conscious independence. Slan may bring desolation upon the green, 
earth, or dwarf its gigantic pinnacles to the stature of his grovelling 
conceptions, but over the beauty and majesty of the ocean he has no 
power. He may mine the solid mountains, dig up buried cities upon 
which the lava has mouldered for centuries, and fix his habitation in 
their silent courts, but he cannot fathom the abysses of the deep, or 
walk the lonely streets of St. Ubes or Euphasmia. He may visit the 
sepulchres of the first patriarchs, he may lift the cerements from the 
queens of the Ptolomies, but he cannot go down to the ocean-grave of 
his yesterday's friend to close his eyes or cast the wild-flower upon his 
uncoffined bosom. I do not know whether we are capable of forming a 
true Platonic attachment for an inanimate object, but I sometimes be- 
lieve that we may. The shrine in which friendship has treasured up its 
cherished keepsakes, the ring that sparkled on the finger, and the ringlet 
that once shaded the brow of the departed — whatever, indeed, serves as 
a remembrancer of the absent, or a memento of the dead, speaks elo- 
quently of the existence of such a passion. The home of our childhood 
has a spell of gladness for our hearts, long after the beloved ones who 
formed its endearments have passed for ever from its portal. In the de- 
votion of the idolater, also, there seems too much of reality to be the 
calculation of hypocrisy. The rivers, the hills, and the deep forests 
have their worshippers; the sun and moon listen to the hymn of the 
Gheber who regards them with the expression of afi"ection and reverence. 
With feeling akin to these, the astrologer gazes at the star, whose be- 
nignant influence, like an invisible guardian, has, in his belief, wrought 
out whatever there has been of happiness or prosperity in the unfolding 
of his destiny. Nor has the ocean lacked its admiring votaries. Byron. 



OUR HOME IS EVERYWHERE. — STANZAS. 



95 



OUR HOME IS EVEHYWHBRE. 



The following lines, by the Rev. S. Graham, originally appeared in the Richmond Enquirer. They Tvere 
written during a passage from New York to Richmond, in November, 1825. 



Heate ! mighty ocean, heave ! 

And blow, thou boist'rous wind ! 
Onward we swiftly glide, and leave 

Our home and friends behind. 

Away, away, we steer, 

Upon the ocean's breast; 
And dim the distant heights appear, 

Like clouds along the west. 

There is a loneliness 

Upon the mighty deep ; 
And hurried thoughts upon us press. 

As onwardly we sweep ! 

Onr home— Heavens, that word! 

A name without a thing ! 
yVe are e'en as a lonely bird. 

Whose home is on the wing. 

My wife and little one 

Are with me as I go ; 
And they are all, beneath the sun, 

I have of weal or wo ! 

With them, upon the- sea 

Or land, where'er I roam, 
My all on earth is still ■with me. 

And I am still at home ! 

Heave ! mighty ocean, heave ! 

And blow, thou boist'rous wind ! 
Where'er we go, we cannot leave 

Our home and friends behind. 

Then come, my lonely bride. 

And come my child of wo ; 
Since we have nought on earth beside. 

What matter where we go ? 



We heed not earthly powers. 

We heed not wind nor weather ; 
For, come what will, this joy is ours — 

We share it still together. 

And if the storms be wild. 
And we perish in the sea. 

We'll clasp each other and our child- 
One grave shall hold the three ! — 

And neither shall remain 

To meet and bear, alone. 
The cares, the injuries, the pain. 

That we, my love, have known. 

And there's a sweeter joy. 

Wherever we may be ; 
Danger nor death can e'er destroy 

Our trust, O God, in Thee ! 

Then wherefore should we grieve. 

Or what have we to fear? 
Though home— and friends— and life, we leave. 

Our God is ever near. 

If He who made all things. 

And rules them, is our own. 
Then every grief and trial brings 

Us nearer to his throne. 

Then come, my gentle bride. 

And come my child of love ; 
What if we've nought on earth beside? 

Our portion is above ! 

Sweep! mighty ocean, sweep ! 

Ye winds, blow foul or fair ; 
Our God is with us on the deep ! 

Our home is everywhere ! 



FOR&ET ME NOT. 



FoEGET mo not! in accents mild. 
My mother says, beloved child : 
Forget me not, when, far away. 
Amidst a thoughtless world you stray ; 
Forget me not, when fools would win 
Your footsteps to the paths of sin ; 
Forget me not, when urged to wrong 
By passions and temptations strong; 
Forget me not, when pleasure's snare 
Would lead you from the house of prayer. 



Forget me not, in feeble age. 
But let me then your thoughts engage. 
And think, my child, how fondly I 
Watched o'er your helpless infancy: 
Forget me not, when death shall close 
These eyelids in their last repose. 
And evening breezes softly wave 
The grass upon thy mother's grave ; — 
Oh ! then, whate'er thy age and lot 
May be, my cliild, forget me not ! 



STANZAS. 



Thottgh bright and fair is Beauty's flower. 
Too soon its fragrance must decay ; 

It blooms but for a little hour. 
And then 'tis doonied to fade away. 



But Virtue, pure and sacred, lives 

Beyond the reach of change or time ; 
Its grace, its loveliness, survives. 
To blossom in a heavenly clime. 



96 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



A VIKGIN HEART. 

The author of De Vere lias made some beautiful observations on tlie 
worth and devotion of an unpractised heart. " There is nothing under 
heaven as delicious as the possession of pure, fresh, and immutable aifec- 
tions. The most felicitous moment of man's life, the most ecstatic of all 
his emotions and sympathies, is that in which he receives an avowal of 
affection from the idol of his heart. The springs of feeling, when in 
their youthful purity, are fountains of unsealed and gushing tenderness — 
the spell that once draws them forth in the mystic light of future years 
and undying memory. Nothing in life is so pure and devoted as woman's 
love. It matters not whether it be for husband or child, or sister or 
brother, it is the same pure and unquenchable flame, the same constant 
and immaculate glow of feeling, whose undeniable touchstone is trial. 
Do but give her one token of love — one kind word or gentle look, even 
if it be amid death — the feelings of that faithful heart will gush forth 
as a torrent, in despite of earthly bond or mercenary tie. More price- 
less than the gems of Grolconda is a virgin's heart ; and more devoted 
than the idolatry of Mecca is woman's love. There is no sordid view, 
no qualifying self-interest in the feeling. It is a principle and character- 
istic of her nature — a faculty and an infatuation which absorbs and con- 
centrates ail the fervour of her soul and all the depths of her bosom. I 
would rather be the idol of one unsullied and unpractised heart, than the 
monarch of empires. I would rather possess the immaculate and im- 
passioned devotion of one high-souled and enthusiastic virgin than the 
sycophantic fawnings of millions. There is more thrilling felicity de- 
rived from a union of two guileless and uncontaminated hearts, than all 
the conquests of Alexander, the wisdom of Socrates, or the wealth of 
CroBsus would afford. The general world knows nothing of these things. 
None can appreciate the refinements of pure feeling, but those who by 
nature or some peculiar property of the mind are qualified to drink of 
the depths of its gushing and sparkling fountains. None can know the 
elysium of possessing a heart until they know the value of a gem so 
priceless — until they can think of its imbodyings as something too holy 
to be mingled with the grosser images of passion and humanity — until 
they at least imagine the spirit of a seraph has been clothed with a form 
of imperishable mortality. When this wild dream mingles with the 
colder and more calculating visions of life — the world may put forth its 
anathemas — fortune may shower down its adversities — but in vain — even 
the sword of Asrael [the angel of death] would scarcely destroy the un- 
utterable ecstasies of this heaven-descending happiness." 



A WAG, observing a fellow steal a fish and put it under his jacket, 
which was too short to conceal the theft, hallooed to the purloiner to 
wear, in future, a longer jacket, or steal a shorter fish. 



FILIAL VIRTUE ILLUSTRATED. 97 



FILIAL VIRTUE ILLUSTRATED. 

"This touching story/' says the New York Atlas, "is told in an 
Edinburgh paper, and deserves, as the relator expresses himself, to be 
handed down to the latest generations." It will, we think, engage the 
feelings and improve the heart of an ingenuous reader. 

Some travellers from Grlasgow were obliged to stop at the small burgh 
of Lanark, " and having nothing better to engage our attention," said 
one of them, ' we amused ourselves by looking at the passengers from 
the window of our inn, which was opposite the prison. While we were 
thus occupied, a gentleman came up on horseback, very plainly dressed, 
attended by a servant. He had scarcely passed our window when he 
alighted, left his horse, and advanced towards an old man who was en- 
gaged in paving the street. After having saluted him, he took hold of 
the rammer and struck some blows ujoon the pavement, at the same time 
addressing the old man, who stood amazed at this adventure : — ' This 
work seems to be very painful for a person of your age ; have you no 
sons who could share in your labours and comfort your old age V ' Forgive 
me, sir, I have three lads, who inspired me with the highest hopes, but 
the poor fellows are not now within reach to assist their father.' ' Where 
are they, then?' 'The oldest has obtained the rank of captain in 
India, in the service of the honourable East India Company. The second 
has likewise enlisted, in hope of rivalling his brother.' The old man 
paused ; a momentary tear bedimmed his eyes. ' And pray what has 
become of the third?' 'Alas, he became security for me; the poor 
boy engaged to pay my debt, and being unable to fulfil the undertaking, 
he is — in prison.' At this recital, the gentleman stepped aside a few 
paces, and covered his face with his hands. After having thus given 
vent to his feelings, he resumed the discourse. ' xind has the oldest — ■ 
this degenerate son — this captain — never sent you any thing to extricate 
you from your miseries ?' 'Ah ! call him not degenerate : my son is virtu- 
ous ; he both loves and respects his father ; he has oftener than once 
sent me money, even more than was sufficient for my wants ; but I had 
the misfortune to lose it by becoming security for a worthy man, my 
landlord, who was burdened with a very large family. Unfortunately, 
finding himself unable to pay, he has caused my ruin. They have taken 
my all, and nothing now remains for me.' At this moment, a young 
man, passing his head through the iron gratings of a window in the 
prison, began to cry, ' Father ! father ! if my brother William is still 
alive, this is he ; he is the gentlemen who speaks with you !' ' Yes, my 
friend, it is lie,' replied the gentleman, throwing himself into the old 
man's arms, who, like one beside himself, attempting to speak, and sob- 
bing, had not recovered his senses, when an old woman, decently dressed, 
rushed from a poor-looking hut, crying, ' Where art thou, my dear Wil- 
liam ? Come to me — come and embrace your mother !' The captain no 
sooner saw her, than he quit his father and went to throw himself upon 
the neck of the good old dame. The scene was now overpowering ; the 

I 7 



98 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

travellers left their room and increased the number of spectators, wit- 
nesses of this most affecting sight. Mr. W , one of the travellers, 

made his way through the crowd, and advancing to the gentleman, thus 
addressed him : — ' Captain, we ask the honour of your acquaintance ; 
we would gladly have given a hundred thousand to be witnesses of this 
tender meeting with your honourable family ; we request the honour of 
you and yours to dinner in this inn.' The captain, alive to the invi- 
tation, accepted it with politeness; but at the same time replied, that he 
would neither eat nor drink until his youngest brother had recovered 
his liberty. At the same instant, he deposited the sum for which he 
had been incarcerated, and, in a short time after, his brother joined the 
party. 

" The whole family now met at the inn, where they and the affectionate 
William sat in the midst of a multitude who were loading him with 
caresses, all of which he returned with the utmost cordiality. As soon 
as there was an opportunity for free conversation, the good soldier un- 
bosomed his heart to his parents and the travellers. ' Gentlemen,' said 
he, ' to-day I feel, in its full extent, the kindness of Providence, to 
whom I owe every thing. My uncle brought me up to the business of 
a weaver, but I requited his attentions badly; for having contracted a 
habit of idleness and dissipation, I enlisted in a corps belonging to the 
East India Company. I was then only a little more than eighteen. My 
soldier-like appearance had been observed by Lord G , the command- 
ing officer, with whose beneficence and inexhaustible generosity all 
Europe is acquainted. My zeal for the service inspired him with regard ; 
and, thanks to his care, I rose, step by step, to the rank of captain, and 
was intrusted with the funds of the regiment. By dint of economy, 
and the aid of commerce, I amassed honourably a stock of £30,000. At 
that time I quit the service. It is true that I made three remittances 
to my father; but the first only, consisting of £200, reached him. The 
second fell into the hands of a man who had the misfortune to become 
insolvent; and I intrusted the third to a Scotch gentleman, who died on 
the passage ; but I hold his receipt, and his heirs will account to me for 
it.' After the dinner, the captain gave his father £200, to supply his 
most pressing wants ; and at the same time secured to him, as well as 
his mother, an annuity of £500, reversible to his two brothers, pro- 
mising to purchase a commission for the soldier, and to settle the 
youngest in a manufactory, which he was about to establish in Scotland, 
for the purpose of affording employment to his countrymen. Besides, 
he presented £500 as a marriage portion to his sister, who was married 
to a farmer in indifferent circumstances ; and, after having distributed 
£50 among the poor, he entertained, at an elegant dinner, the principal 
inhabitants of the burgh. Such a man merited the favours of fortune. 
By this generous sensibility, too, he showed, indeed, that he was worthy 
of the distinguished honours so profusely heaped upon him by the illus- 
trious Lord C ." 



BURNING OF THE RICHMOND THEATRE. 99 



BURNING OF THE RICHMOND THEATRE. 

The house was fuller than on any night of the season. The play 
was over, and the first act of the pantomime had passed. The second 
and last had begun. All was yet gayety; all, so far, had been plea- 
sure ; curiosity was yet alive, and further gratification anticipated ; the 
orchestra sent forth its sounds of harmony and joy, — when the audience 
perceived some confusion on the stage, and presently a shower of sparks 
falling from above. Some were stai'tled, and others thought it was part 
of the scenic exhibition. A performer on the stage received a portion 
of the burning materials from on high, and it was perceived that others 
were tearing down the scenery. Some one cried out from the stage that 
there was no danger. Immediately after, Hopkins Robinson ran for- 
ward and cried out, " The house is on fire \" pointing to the ceiling, where 
the fiames were progressing like wild-fire. In a moment all was ap- 
palling horror and distress. Robinson handed several persons from the 
boxes to the stage, as a ready way for their escape. The cry of " Fire ! 
Fire I" ran through the house, mingled with the wailings of females and 
children. The general rush was to gain the lobbies. It appears, from 
the following description of the house, and the scene that ensued, that 
this was the cause of the great loss of life. 

The general entrance from the pit and boxes was through a door not 
more than large enough to admit three persons abreast. The outer 
entrance was within a trifling distance of the pit-door, and gave an easy 
escape to that part of the house. But to attain the boxes from the 
street, it was necessary to descend into a long passage, and to ascend 
again by an angular staii-case. The gallery had a distinct entrance, and 
its occupants escaped. The suffering and death fell on the occupants of 
the boxes, who, panic-struck, did not see that the pit was immediately 
left vacant, but pressed on to gain the crowded and tortuous way by 
which they had entered. The pit-door was so near the general entrance, 
that those who occupied that portion of the house gained the street 
with ease. A gentleman, who escaped from the pit among the last, saw 
it empty ; and when in the street, looked back again into the general 
entrance to the pit and boxes, and the door had not been reached by 
those from the lobbies. A gentleman and lady were saved by being 
accidentally thrown into the pit ; and most of those who perished would 
have escaped if they had leaped from the boxes, and sought that avenue 
to the street. But all darted to the lobbies. The stairs were blocked 
up. All was enveloped in hot, scorching smoke and flames. The lights 
were extinguished by the black and smothering vapour, and the shrieks 
of despair were appalling. Happy, for a moment, were those who gained 
a window and inhaled the air of the heavens. Those who had issued to 
the street cried to the sufferers at the windows to leap down, and 
stretched out their arms to save them. Some were seen struggling to 
gain the apertures to inhale the fresh air. Men, women, and children 
precipitated themselves from the first and second stories. Some escaped 



100 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

unhurt — others were killed or mangled by the fall. Some, with their 
clothes on fire, shrieking, leaped from the windows, to gain a short 
reprieve and die in agonies. 

" "Who can picture ?" said a correspondent of the Mirror, "' the dis- 
tress of those who, unable to gain the windows or afraid to leap from 
them, were pent up in the long narrow passages ?" The cries of those 
who reached the upper windows are described as being heart-sickening. 
Many who found their way to the street were so scorched or burnt as 
to die in consequence ; and some were crushed to death under foot, after 
reaching the outer door. 

Add to this mass of suffering the feelings of those who knew that 
they had relatives or friends who had gone to the house that night. 
Such rushed half-frantic to the spot, with the crowds of citizens from 
all quarters, while the tolling bells sounded the knell of death to the 
heart of the father or mother whose child had been permitted to visit 
the theatre on that night of horror. 

"As my father was leading me home," said Mr. Henry Placide, "we 
saw Mr. Grreene, exhausted by previous exertion, leaning on a fence and 
looking at the scene of ruin. For all was now one black mass of 
smoking destruction, " Thank Grod I" ejaculated Greene, " thank God ! 
I prohibited Nancy from coming to the house to-night ! — she is safe !" 

Nancy was his only daughter, just springing into womanhood, still at 
the boarding-school of Mrs. Gibson, and as beautiful and lovely a girl 
as imagination can picture. 

Mrs. Gibson and the boarders had made up a party for the theatre 
that evening, and Nancy Greene asked her father's permission to ac- 
company them. He refused — but unfortunately added his reason — 
" The house will be crowded, and you will occupy a seat that will other- 
wise be paid for." On these words hung the fate of youth, innocence, 
and beauty. " I will pay for your ticket," said the kind instructress, 
" we will not leave you behind." The teacher and the pupil were 
buried in the ruins on which the father gazed, and over which he re- 
turned thanks for the safety of his child ! He went home, and learned 
the truth. 

An instance of the escape of a family is given. The husband, with 
three children, were in the second boxes ; his wife, with a female friend, 
in another part of the house. The wife gained a window, leaped out 
and escaped unhurt. Her friend followed, and was killed. The 
father clasped the two helpless girls to his breast, and left a boy of 
twelve years of age to follow : the boy was forced from the father, ran to 
a window, sprang out, and was safe. The parent, with his precious 
charge, followed the stairway, pressed upon by those behind him, and 
those who mounted on the heads and shoulders of the crowd before 
them — he became unconscious, but was still borne along; he was taken 
up, carried to his bed, and opened his eyes to see all his family safe. 

On the contrary, Lieut. Gibbon, of the Navy, as exemplary in life as 
heroic in the service of his country, and on the brink of a union with 
Miss Conyers, the pride of Richmond for every accomplishment and 
virtue, was swept into eternity while exerting himself to do all that 



EVENING. — THE MOTHER. 101 

man should do in such trying circumstances. He was with his mother 
at the theatre, and carried her to a place of safety ; then ran back to 
save her in whose fate his own was bound up : he caught her in his arms, 
and had borne her partly down the staircase, when the steps gave way, 
and a body of flame swept them to eternity. 



EVENING. 

There are two periods in the life of man, in which the evening hour 
is peculiarly interesting ; youth and old age. In youth, we love its 
mellow moonlight, its millions of stars, its soothing shade and sweet 
serenity. Amid those scenes, we can commune with those we love, and 
twine the wreath of friendship, while there are none to bear witness 
but the gorgeous heavens, and spirits that hold their endless Sabbath 
there. We look abroad upon creation, spread in the slumber of a moon- 
light scene around ; and, wrapt in contemplation, fancy we see and hear 
the waving wings and melting songs of other and purer worlds. It 
accords with the light flow of youthful spirits, the fervency of fancy, 
and the softer feelings of the heart. Evening is also delightful to vir- 
tuous age. It affords hours of undisturbed thought. It seems an 
emblem of the calm and tranquil close of a busy life, serene and mild, 
with the impress of its great Creator enstamped upon it. It spreads its 
quiet wings above the grave, and seems that all shall be peace beyond it. 



THE MOTHER. 



There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of man- 
hood ; that softens the heart, and brings it back to the feelings of in- 
fancy. Who that has languished, even in advanced life, in sickness and 
despondency ; who that has pined on a weary bed, in the neglect and 
loneliness of a foreign land, but has thought on the mother ''that looked 
on his childhood,'^ that smoothed his pillow and administered to his 
helplessness ? Oh ! there is an enduring tenderness in the love of a 
mother to a son, that transcends all other affections of the heart. It is 
neither to be chilled by selfishness, nor daunted by danger, nor weakened 
by worthlessness, nor stifled by ingratitude. She will sacrifice every 
comfort to his convenience ; she will surrender every pleasure to his 
enjoyment; she will glory in his fame, and exult in his prosperity: — 
and, if misfortune overtake him, he will be dearer to her from misfor- 
tune ; and if disgrace settle upon his name, she will still love and cherish 
him in spite of his disgrace ; and if all the world besides cast him ofi^, 
she will be all the world to him. 



An empty head and a full purse are more respected than the man of 
sense whose purse has been lightened by the unavoidable shafts of 
misfortune. 
i2 



102 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 



THE DRUNKARD'S SOLILOQUY. 

Having passed by the inn, I observed some one, at a short distance, 
beneath a lofty buttonwood, apparently holding a dialogue with himself. 
I drew near unobserved, and heard the following : 

" Who am I ? Ay, and what am I, but a wretched outcast, shunned 
and despised by the wise and good ? My estate wasted ; constitution 
destroyed ; affairs in ruin ; friends absconded ; children naked and hun- 
gry ; wife in tears and comfortless ; appetite none ; visage bloated and 
disgusting ; hands and knees tremulous ; reason debased ; and manners 
become vile ; character annihilated ! My acquaintances pass by me like 
strangers ! I am tormented by disease ; harassed by lawsuits ; teased 
by creditors ; collared by sheriffs ; mocked and hunted by truants and 
blackguards ! I am a hated, filthy sot, companion only to the lowest 
brute ! Nay, the vile brute is exalted, is noble compared to a wretch like 
me ! In all that is esteemed honourable, respectable, and worthy in socie- 
ty, I am the mere cinder of a crucible ; the very paltry dregs of alem- 
bics ! Cursed intemperance, these are thy fruits ! Oppressed nature 
can hold on no longer ! She is about to resign her worthless charge ! 
The horrid grave opens upon me and yawns for its prey ! Despair seizes 
me ! My brain is on fire ! Away, then ; let me hasten and sink, unre- 
membered, down, down, down to \" " Father, father I" exclaim- 
ed a sudden and wild voice. The knife fell to the ground, and a rag- 
ged, though lovely boy rushed into his embraces. 



RELIGION. 



The following short and beautiful quotation is from the pen of the 
elegant, the benevolent, the inspired Mackenzie. Speaking of those who 
profess a disbelief in religion, he expresses himself in the following heart- 
touching manner : — 

'' He who would undermine those foundations upon which the fabric 
of our future hope is reared, seeks to beat down that column which sup- 
ports the feebleness of humanity : — let him but think a moment, and his 
his heart will arrest the cruelty of his purpose. Would he pluck its 
little treasure from the bosom of poverty ? Would he wrest its crutch 
fiom the hand of age, and remove from the eye of affliction the only 
solace of its wo ? The way we tread is rugged at best; we tread it, 
however, lighter by the prospect of the better country to which, we trust, 
it will lead. Tell us not that it will end in the gulf of eternal dissolu- 
tion, or break off in some wild, which fancy may fill up as she pleases, 
but reason is unable to delineate; quench not that beam, which, amidst 
the night of this evil world, has cheered the despondency of ill-requited 
worth, and illumined the darkness of suffering virtue." 



THE ANXIOUS WIFE. 103 



THE ANXIOUS WIFE. 

BY S. C. HALL. 

Witli mournful eyes, and brow of feeling ; 
One hand before her meekly spreading, 
The other back her ringlets shedding. 

Allan Cunningham. 

Why looks the mother so lonely, within her cottage home — her own 
home — even at the very moment when the prayers of her first-born as- 
cend to the throne of the Almighty, and her cradled infant is calmly 
sleeping by her side ? It is a kindly and a quiet evening; the setting sun 
mingles his rays with light, fleecy clouds that sail along the sky ; the 
gentle breeze wafts the fragrance of a thousand flowers through the open 
casement ; and the voice of nature is calling upon every heart to be 
cheerful, to be happy; yet is the mother more than pensive, as she looks 
forth along the far-spread heath ; and in her chamber there are tokens 
that she waits the home-coming of one, in whose presence alone her eye 
can brighten, and sadness and solitude be felt no more. For hours has 
she listened to hear his step along the gravelled pathway that leads 
from the main road to her humble dwelling on the plain — and she is 
weary with the heaviness of hope deferred. 

At length, her ear catches the welcome and well-known sound of his 
tread ; in another moment he had passed the threshold of his door, 
and the anxious wife is in her husband's arms ; he has kissed her fair 
forehead, patted her cheek, and gazed intently on his babe ; but he has 
spoken no word; and there is a cloud upon his brow; his eyes appear 
sunk, and his lips are firmly compressed, as if he broods over some plan 
of more than ordinary moment, as he takes his accustomed seat by the 
cheerful fireside, and partakes of food slowly and in silence ; looking now 
and then towards the clock, that, with its melancholy note, alone breaks 
the dreariness of the scene, giving awful notice that another moment is 
gone with the past. The wife is sitting opposite the husband ; her clasp- 
ed hands rest upon her knees; and she is earnestly watching the out- 
ward signs of the struggles she knows to be passing within the breast of 
her beloved ; but she does not intrude her speech upon his thoughts, 
until, with a deep and heavy sigh, he takes her small hand, gently 
presses it, and gazes fixedly and anxiously upon her quivering lip. 

" Is there any trouble that I may not share ?" she inquired, in that 
gentle tone, which comes to a wounded spirit like the summer breeze 
over a sick man's brow, when, for the first time, he has left the heavy 
atmosphere of his chamber, — "or am I less the friend than the wife?" 

"Nothing, nothing, Ellen," he replied, at length, "but my spirits are 
low — and yet, in truth, I know not why," he continued, assuming a look 
and attitude of gayety and carelessness — " for my labour of to-night is not 
a new thing with me, but one which I have often done with safety and 
with success. The Bessy is expected in to-night/' he added^ in a whis- 



104 FIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

per; "we have certain news that she will land her cargo when the moon 
goes down, — but strange does it seem, that what should make me joy- 
ous, weighs down my heart, as if its veins were filled with molten 
lead !" 

" Then go not to-night, Herbert, — oh ! go not with these fearful and 
reckless men, — pursue no longer a course that may lead to death ; but 
listen again to the warning you have so often heard from my lips." 

'' Nay, Ellen, soon shall thy daily prayer be answered, but to-night 
must see me on the shore. I am pledged to be there before the midnight 
comes ; but take the word of one who never deceived you, the morrow's 
dawn shall see me an altered man — never again shall the smuggler hail 
me his companion. And now, farewell ; this will be mj last night." 
Herbert kissed his sleeping babe, breathed a parting prayer over the 
couch of his boy, pressed his wife to his bosom, and paced rapidly from 
his dwelling. 

She watched him until he had reached the jutting of the road that 
led down to the beach. Then, sighing heavily, she echoed her husband's 
last words, "His last night!" and, leaning her head upon the cradle of 
her child, wept bitterly, as she prayed earnestly that his farewell sen- 
tence might not have an awful meaning. 

Herbert hurried onward, nor paused, even for a moment, until he 
stood before a large mansion, that nearly skirted the beach ; its broken 
windows and unweeded garden showed it to be without inhabitants. It 
had once been his own — it had descended to him, through a long line 
of ancestors ; and few years had passed since he had been greeted as 
one of the wealthiest men along the coast of Devonshire. One of the 
happiest he had certainly been ; — for his hopes of the future soared 
but little beyond the possession of the present ; his pleasures were those 
of a domestic hearth, and all his ambition sought for was even in his 
grasp. 

But it is not the daring and speculative alone that adversity visits; 
in an evil hour, but more from a natural kindness of disposition than 
from feelings of a selfish nature, was Herbert induced to permit a quan- 
tity of smuggled goods to remain in one of his cellars, until their owner 
had contrived some means of conveying them to the neighbouring town 
of Barnstable. These were discovered by the ofiicers of excise ; the un- 
fortunate gentleman was prosecuted, exchequered in an enormous sum, 
and utterly, as it appeared, irretrievably ruined. The lofty mansion in 
the dale was exchanged for the humble cottage on the moor; but as a 
recompense for poverty and loss of character, he had then a conscience 
void of ofi"ence, and a knowledge that in adversity and in prosperity his 
wife was still the same : there was hope in every tone of her sweet, gen- 
tle voice, in every glance of her mild blue eye ; the smile of affection 
was never for a moment away from her eloquent countenance ; and the 
dwelling he had shuddered to think upon became happier and more 
cheerful than the abode from which he had been driven, an exile within 
sight of liome. 

But partly from necessity, and partly because he conceived himself a 
wronged and injured man, he was induced to form a connection with one 



THE ANXIOUS WIFE. 105 

of the lawless bands that infested the seacoast of Devonshire ; and from 
a susjDected smuggler, he became one in reality. Notwithstanding the 
continued exertions of his wife to wean him from a course of crime and 
danger, he had persevered, until much of the wealth he had lost had re- 
turned again to his coffers — and when he spoke of the repurchase of his 
ancient home and estate, it was not as a far-off prospect, but as an event 
almost within his reach. It was this feeling and this hope that came 
over him, as he stood before the broken door of the deserted house. 

" Soon shall ye be ray own," said he, as he paused at the threshold — 
" my own, once more ; and in your spacious halls shall my Ellen sit as 
meekly and as gently as in her humble cottage on the moor — soon will 
ye be my own again, home of my fathers." 

He whistled; the sound was answered; and in a few moments, he 
was in the midst of a band of resolute and dai-ing men, who welcomed 
him as their leader. 

'^ Comrades ! the moon wanes ; have you any one on the look-out ?" 

"Ay, sir, ay," replied a stout, hardy seaman, "Jack Minns is up 
aloft with the night-glass; and I warrant me, Jack will see her ten 
knots off." 

" Is there any one upon the watch on the main road, and the left of 
the hill?" 

" Ay, sir, ay, all is cared for, and I warrant me the bonny Bess will 
land her cargo safe enough, long before the morning breaks." 

The gang were carousing merrily; but Herbert sat apart. His thoughts 
were with his lone wife in her cottage : well he knew that the night 
would be to her as sleepless as to him ; and it was with an aching heart 
and a burning brow that he looked upon the calm heavens, and then 
towards the moor, that lay shrouded in darkness, and breathed a low and 
solemn prayer that the innocent might not suffer with the guilty. It 
was a vain and foolish prayer ; it was a solemn mockery for justice ; and 
he knew it. The husband and the father should have remembered that 
in his dishonour was his children's shame; that in his misery they must 
participate ; and that the consequence of his crime could not be visited 
alone on him. It toas thus he reasoned, when such reasoning could avail 
him naught. 

In about an hour, Jack Minns descended from the roof of the house, 
and gave notice that the Bessy was in the offing. Instantly, the party 
were in motion, and on their way to the shore. Silently and steadily they 
passed down the rugged and broken cliffs, and stood at the water's edge. 
Soon a solitary spark was seen, dimly burning for an instant, upon the 
surface of the ocean ; so faint was it, that by those only who looked for 
it, could it be discerned. It pointed out where the vessel lay. The 
signal was answered from the shore ; a flash from a pistol-pan informed 
the smugglers where they might land — and, in a few moments, the 
muffled oars were rapidly bearing a boat to land. A brief greeting was 
exchanged between the seamen and their associates, and the work of un- 
loading commenced. In a space of time almost incredibly short, she wag 
on her way towards the ship, when a sound that resembled a stifled 
scream passed along the waves ; and the boatmen stayed their oars, first 



106 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

looking along the sea, where their own vessel rode tranquilly upon the 
waters, and then towards the land, where they could discern, in the 
dim twilight, an unusual and ominous bustle among the party they 
had left. 

It was not the ordinary stir of their employment that engaged the 
smugglers on shore. Herbert had given his directions; and along the 
craggy cliffs were the tubs and bales borne to a place of safety, when 
he perceived a stranger among the group, and instantly pointed him out 
to Minns, who advanced, laid his hand upon him, and attempted to force 
his slouched hat from his head. The attempt was resisted, when the 
smuggler drew a pistol from his belt, and said in a low tone — '' Friend 
or foe ?" 

The stranger replied by knocking the pistol out of the hand that 
threatened him, and rushed up the cliffs, followed by a number of the 
party, one of whom fired his pistol at the spy. The sound echoed from 
rock to rock, and as it died away, the voice of Jack Minns was heard, in 
a hissing kind of whisper, that passed through the group. 

"Comrades, we are betrayed — off! off'!" 

But ere they could resolve on what course to pursue, a party of soldiers 
bent their bodies over the precipice, and pointed their muskets at the 
gang beneath. The click of their firearms was distinctly heard, and 
the gleam of their brightness met the gaze of the smugglers, as they 
looked upward and shuddered. The next sounds were the fearful warn- 
ing, "Yield, in the king's name !'^ and the reply of some daring and 
reckless man, " Come and take us !" 

The smugglers had shrunk under the partial shelter of the overhang- 
ing cliffs, but, as they looked to the right or left, they saw that every 
pass was guarded. They had brief time for thought; the soldiers, with 
their fixed bayonets, were marching in order towards the strand, and a 
signal-fire was instantly blazing on the heights. 

"They are but a few now," exclaimed Minns; "let us fight it out 
before the rest come on us.'' 

Herbert made no reply. Every nerve was paralyzed ; his countenance 
became pale as death ; and a deep and hollow groan came from his bosom, 
at the very moment when Blinns, struggling with the foremost soldier of 
the band, received the contents of a musket through his heart, and, with 
a loud shriek, fell along the shore. 

The contest was brief, but did not terminate until more than one 
soldier had been wounded, and several smugglers had been stretched upon 
the crimsoned sand. Almost broken in heart, and wounded — for he had 
fought like a tiger in his lair when he found the hunters press hardly 
upon him — was Herbert led, like a gyved prisoner, along the road 
towards the dwelling that was once his own. 

The morning was breaking over the earth, and, still as a prisoner, with 
a felon's death before him, lay Hei-bert, beside his own once cheerful 
and happy hearth, when a gentle tap was heard at the casement; — with 
a faltering step he approached, looked beneath, and beheld his wife. 
She made a sign to be cautious ; and having fii-st ascertained that his 
guards were sleeping, Herbert carefully opened the window, and in 



THE ANXIOUS WIFE. 107 

another moment she was in his arms. A few brief whispers served to tell 
the purport of her visit : — 

" Oh, Herbert, this is no time for reproach — to save the erring father 
of my children am I here. Oh, if my warning voice had been heard ere 
the fatal night that is now fearfully passing !" 

Her object was soon explained, and, in a few seconds, Herbert had 
taken her cloak, wrapped her in his long and heavy coat, placed his hat 
on her head, pressed her to his bosom, and was crawling away under the 
shadow of the trees. In the already dawning twilight, he could perceive 
her at the window, pressing her hand to her brow, and her raised finger 
was directing his course towards the beach. 

The whole transaction was scarcely the work of a minute, but it was 
an eventful one, for she had scarcely closed the window, ere one of the 
soldiers awoke, turned and looked carefully around the room — the pri- 
soner was seated in a corner, leaning her head upon her arm ; and above 
an hour passed before the escape of Herbert was discovered. 

In vain did they search every portion of the old mansion, and scour 
the neighbouring hills and plains — the object they sought was nowhere 
to be found ; and although Ellen was led to the nearest town and exa- 
mined, her bondage was brief — she was sufi"ered to return to her 
children. 

Nearly a year had passed, and she had received no tidings of her hus- 
band, — hope had at length gone from her, — in sorrow and in solitude did 
she spend her days, and even the sweet smiles and gentle accents of her 
children failed to call back comfort to her heart and dwelling. A long 
weary winter and a cheerful spring had gone by, and summer had again 
decked the land in beauty. Driven from her humble cottage, and point- 
ed at as the smuggler's wife, in the neighbouring town of Barnstable, in 
which she at first sought refuge, she had travelled along the coast, — 
poor, and friendless, and deserted, — with no comforter but that religion 
which had never left her, either in the lofty dwelling on the strand, the 
humble cottage on the moor, or during her wanderings along the public 
highways, — depending for existence upon the poor pittance that the cold 
hand of charity might fling to her. At length, in a dark and cheerless 
lodging, in the outskirts of Ilfracome, did Ellen Herbert find shelter, 
and, by the labour of her hands, did she bring up those who were more 
desolate than orphans. 

Morning, noon, and night, did she fervently pray that, wherever her 
husband wandered, the light of truth might visit him, and that deep 
adversity might teach him the lesson of honourable contentment he had 
failed to learn from the precepts and example of his wife. 

One evening, when her children were at i^est, she laid aside her work, 
and the Book of Truth lay open on her table ; she had been comforted 
by its pages, that speak so strongly to the faithful of reAvard — to the 
desolate of hope ; when the latch was gently raised, and Herbert met 
the gaze of his wife. Pale and haggard, and in the garb of extreme 
poverty, did he stand before her, and listen to the throbs that came from 
her bosom, mingled with grateful thanks to the Giver of all good that 
he was yet alive. 



108 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Her prayers had been heard. The hand of affliction had been heavy 
upon him in the far distant land to which he had escaped. The bread 
that had been cast upon the waters had been returned after many 
days ; the prayer of the righteous had availed much. Changed in heart 
did he once more tread the shores of his native land, and seek out those 
beloved ones, from whom he might again hear the blessed words of 
husband and father. 

Long did they sit, hand in hand, and speak their gratitude to God, 
who had made adversity the handmaid of religion ; and in calm confi- 
dence did they speak of the future, as more full of hope than fear. " Stead- 
fastly purposing to lead a new life," did the outlawed smuggler detail 
to his virtuous and trusting companion the trials he had encountered — 
trials that had worked together for his good. And the early morning 
beheld them, with their boy and babe, journeying from the town. 

In the metropolis, to which they travelled, Herbert, under another 
name, soon obtained employment, regaining his lost character, and, by a 
course of unremitting industry and integrity, arrived, step by step, to a 
respectable and lucrative station in the office of an extensive merchantj 
whose partner he became, after the lapse of a few years. 

Many persons are there, in the county of Devon, who had received 
from their fathers the above story of Herbert, the smuggler. The cir- 
cumstances will be familiar to some of them, although nearly a century 
has passed over the transaction — for it has been recorded, as nearly as 
possible, after the manner in which it was related to the writer, as a 
true tale. 



THE FIRST SHOT. 



AN INTERESTING INCIDENT, SAID TO HAVE OCCURRED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE 
FRENCH REVOLUTION, IN 1830. 

"By Jove," cried little Jules, one bright morning in July, "if I only 
had a gun !" — and he pushed away, with indignation, the chestnut ring- 
lets that clustered round the youthful forehead, struck the table with 
his clenched fist, his youthful blood boiling in his veins, at the sight of 
friends and brothers murdered in cold blood : then he approached the 
windossf, and leaning his smooth and burning cheeks against the panes, 
which shook with the firing of the royal troops, his eyes filled with tears 
of grief and indignation, as he beheld the terrible massacre in the streets, 
and gazed on the result of a monarch's stupidity and a court's corruption. 
"Mamma, mamma!" he exclaimed, "only look; there are some poor 
fellows carried off in a litter ; they must be dead or dying." " Oh, my 
God, Jules, come from the window." "And look, look, there are some 
who have just fallen, bruised and wounded. By Jove, if I only had a 
gun!" 

His mother, alarmed at Jules's extreme agitation, drew him from the 
window, and endeavoured to divert his mind, but he escaped from her 
kind solicitude, ran up the stairs, four steps at a time, up into the 



THE FIRST SHOT. 109 

garret, where, among other antiquities, he found an old and rather rusty 
musket ; and little Jules clapped his hands in ecstasy, and exclaimed, 
" By Jove, I have got a gun at last I" It was rather heavy for so youth- 
ful and inexperienced an arm ; but what is impossible to a generous and 
intrepid heart, though it beat in the bosom of a boy of twelve ? Little 
Jules raised the musket, which just suited him, and stepped down-stairs 
with his precious burden, "pede suspense," for fear of alarming his 
anxious and watchful mother. But when Jules got into the street, he 
found his rusty and heavy musket not loaded. Luckily, as he thought, 
a grocer's store stood next to his mother's house ; he ran into the shop, 
and exclaimed, " Do not be alarmed, I am your friend Jules ; load my 
gun, good fellow, and make haste ; by Jove, I will give it to them yet I" 
"What!" cried the astonished grocer, "you too?" "Load it, load it, 
and don't talk to me," replied Jules. "But you are too young to 
fight," remonstrated the friendly grocer; "they will kill you, Jules; do 
you not hear the cannons, and the dreadful firing ? — ^just listen !" 

But Jules stamped his foot, and answered only, " By Jove, old man, 
do not chatter so, but load my gun !" And the grocer, finding all entreaties 
vain, did as he was commanded, and loaded the gun. Jules, after cast- 
ing one lingering and affectionate glance at the windows of his mother's 
house, rushed into the street, already strewed with dead bodies. " Oh, 
my Grod I" he murmured to himself; though, even at this dreadful sight, 
the courage of the boy failed him but for a moment. Just in front of 
him was a regiment of the king's household troops. An officer, in glitter- 
ing uniform, with a drawn sword, and threatening gesture, was leading 
them on to a new and ruthless charge. Jules gazed for a moment at 
the terrific scowl and imperious voice with which the ofiicer encouraged 
the massacre, and murmured once more to himself, " By Jove, I have 
got a gun !" He posted himself behind a low wall, rested his musket 
on the top of it, took a long and deliberate aim, and fired. The ofiicer 
in brilliant uniform fell from his horse, shot directly through the heart. 
Jules rushed into the house, ran to his mother's room, and told her in 
triumph how he had killed " his country's foe." The trembling mother 
pressed him in silence to her beating heart ; and had engraved on the 
old musket these few but expressive words : "Parisj July 28, 1830." 



G-AMBLING. — The following is a confession written upon the back of 
a one-dollar bank-bill. Let young men, yea, and old men, follow the 
advice he gives, and take timely warning from the fate of this "ruined 
young man !" The original, we are informed, is in the possession of 
Mr. W. Grenshaw, of this town. 

''Milledgeville, November 28tJi, 1830. 

" This is the last dollar which I can call my own, out of an estate of 
$10,000. And what have I lost ! Not only my fortune, but my cha- 
racter is injured, and my health impaired. Now, young man, take warn- 
ing — beware of gambling ! I am this day twenty-one years old, and 
far from any friend or relation, and without a place whereon to lay my 
head. "A EuixNED YouNG Man." 

K 



110 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



ANCIENT BABYLON. 



Very little is recorded of the early history of the city of Babylon. 
Its foundations were laid, it is supposed, by Nimrod, great grandson of 
Noah, not long after the dispersion of Babel. It stood on both sides of 
the river Euphrates, on an even and extensive plain. It was surrounded 
by a wall, incredible as it may seem, of three hundred and fifty feet in 
height, eighty-seven in thickness, and sixty miles in circumferance ; 
forming an exact square, fifteen miles on each side. This massive wall 
was made of large bituminous bricks, so firmly cemented as to render 
it perfectly solid. An enormous ditch, lined on both sides with brick, 
and filled with water, encompassed the city — the size of which may be 
estimated from the fact that the walls of the city were composed entirely 
of clay taken out of it. 

The city was entered through the walls by one hundred gates, twenty- 
five on each side, composed of solid brass. Between every two of the 
gates were three towers ten feet in height ; also one on each of the four 
corners, and three between the several corner towers and the first gate ; 
making, in all, three hundred and sixteen. From the gates on one side 
of the city to those on the opposite side, went streets one hundred and 
fifty feet in width. These fifty streets, crossing each other at right 
angles, divided the city into six hundred and seventy-six squares. The 
houses stood on these squares, a short distance from each other, facing 
the streets. The central parts of these numerous squares were laid out 
in gardens, walks, and yards, and occupied for many other useful and 
ornamental purposes ; so that, from the many vacant spaces, not more 
than half the ground was built upon. Next to the wall, on each side 
of the city, was a street, two hundred feet wide and fifteen miles (the 
extent of the city) in length. The houses were built only on one side 
of this street — on the squares fronting the wall. 

The river Euphrates, or rather a branch of it, ran directly across the 
city, from north to south. A wall of the same thickness, and similar to 
that which surrounded the city, was built on each side of the river. In 
these walls, where the river was intersected by the streets, were massive 
brazen gates. Prom the several streets there were gradual descents to the 
river, which was crossed in boats. Through these gates, which were 
incautiously left open, Cyrus and his army entered, having turned the 
course of the river, and took this splendid city. 

Such are some of the particulars which have been recorded relative 
to the once "golden city" and "glory of kingdoms." While her walls 
were echoing and re-echoing with the sounds of mirth and festivity, and 
when to all human appearance they were destined to stand to the latest 
generations, Jeremiah prophesied " that it should become desolate, that 
it should not be inhabited, that the ivild beasts of the field should be 
there." History has since confirmed the predictions of the prophet. 
Long before the Christian era, we are told that it had become a place of 
"solitude," and that it was " lying waste and neglected." In the fourth 
century, we are informed that "its walls served as a fence, and the city 



THE ENCHAiSTTED GUN. Ill 

as a park, in wbicli tlie King of Persia kept loild beasts for hunting." 
A traveller, in the twelfth century, found it overrun with serpents and 
scorjyioiis. In 1743, another traveller states that its "ruins were so 
effaced, that there were hardly any vestiges of them to point out the 
situation of the city." By one who has recently visited the spot, we are 
told that " there is not now a stone to tell where Babylon was situated." 



THE ENCHANTED GUN. 

It once happened, that an honest old simpleton, who had been "to 
training," had made money enough by throwing stones at a " peg" to get 
very comfortably fuddled, even without any draft upon his purse of 
three " fourpence-ha'penny pieces" laid by for that purpose several months 
before. Some wags, who had kept soberer upon the occasion than our 
hero, not having had so good luck at gingerbread gambling, loaded his 
gun to the very muzzle with alternate charges of excellent powder and 
touchwood, and, starting him homeward, took care to put a red-hot nail 
upon the topmost piece of touchwood. Uncle Ichabod, honest old soul, 
shouldered firelock and took up his "line of march" for home. He had 
not gone far, however, before pop goes the charge from his gun. Kather 
singular, thought uncle Ich, but a mere accident, doubtless; a charge 
being left there carelessly. A few rods farther, bang ! goes the second 
charge. " Lord a mercy," says Ichabod, " this is tarnal strange, I swag- 
ger; but I guess it didn't all go off the first time, or else 'twouldn't go 
off again, and would it though ?" He had hardly finished this dialogue 
with himself, before off goes the repeater again. "My gracious!" ex- 
claimed our terrified military man, " the Old Boy is in the gun. I never 
heard of sich a thing in my born days !" — an exclamation which he had 
hardly concluded, before his everlasting musket struck four, and Ichabod, 
having no longer any fellowship for a weapon possessing such fearful 
continuity of explosion, very prudently threw it over the fence, and 
made rapid strides for the house of the clergyman, having now no doubt 
that he or his gun was bewitched. The clergyman himself was not 
without his doubts on the subject, after Ichabod had testified to the 
whole story, the truth of which was corroborated by several distinct dis- 
charges from the gun, in the place where he had thrown it, which was 
within plain hearing of the parties. However, while the matter remained 
entirely unsettled, the mischievous caitiffs, who had caused all the alarm, 
arrived with the offending musket,, which made its last discharge in the 
clergyman's presence, and refused further service till reloaded. It 
was never fairly settled, however, between him and Ichabod, whether 
or not it was a case of real witchcraft — a matter which we are the first 
to put fairly at rest, by detailing these particulars. 



True Magnanimity. — Hath any wronged thee ? — be bravely re- 
venged; slight it, and the work is begun; forgive it, and 'tis finished. 
He is below himself who is not above an injury. 



112 



FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



TO MY MOTHEE>- 



The following lines are toucMngly beautiful. We have seen nothing of late that has so moved our sympa- 
thy. The mau who can write such poetry, who has such thoughts, cannot he utterly depraved. The 
curse of intemperance, with its attending downward influence, has here done its work, and a spirit noble 
and generous, that might and should be the pride and ornament of the social circle, is now the degraded 
convict in the walls of a penitentiary. How will that fond mother's heart bleed, if she shall hear of her 
"arling boy, the inmate of a prison, in a foreign land ! 



I'VE wander'd far from thee, mother. 

Far from my happy home ; 
I've loft the land that gave me birth, 

In other climes to roam; 
And time, since then, has roU'd its years 

And mark'd them on my brow ; 
Yet, I have often thought of thee — 

I'm thinking of thee now. 

I'm thinking on the day, mother. 

When, at my tender side, 
You watch'd the dawning of my youth. 

And kiss'd me in your pride ; 
Then brightly was my heart lit up 

With hopes of future joy, 
While your bright fancy honours wove 

To deck thy darling boy. 

I'm thinking of the day, mother. 

When, with such anxious care. 
You lifted up your heart to Heaven — 

Your hope, your trust was there : 
Fond memory brings thy parting words. 

While tears roU'd down your cheek; 
Thy long, last, loving look told more 

Than ever words could speak. 



I'm far away from thee, mother ; 

No friend is near me now. 
To soothe me with a tender word 

Or cool my burning brow ; 
The dearest ties affection wove 

Are all now torn from me ; 
They left me when the trouble came 

They did not love like thee. 



I'm lonely and forsaken now, 

Unpitied and unblest ; 
Yet still I would not have thee know 

How sorely I'm distress'd. 
I know you would not chide, mother, 

Yoti would not give me blame ; 
But soothe me with your tender words. 

And bid me hope again. 

I would not have thee know, mother, 

How brightest hopes decay ; 
The tempter with his baleful cup 

Has dash'd them all away ; 
And shame has left its venom sting, 

To rack with anguish wild- 
Yet, still I would not have thee know 

The sorrows of thy child. 

Oh ! I have wander'd far, mother, 

Since I deserted thee. 
And left thy trusting heart to break, 

Beyond the deep blue sea. 
Oh ! mother, still I love thee well, 

And long to hear thee speak. 
Anil feel again thy balmy breath 

Upon my careworn cheek. 



But, ah ! there is a thought, mother, 

Pervades my beating breast. 
That thy freed spirit may have flown 

To its etern.al rest ; 
And while I wipe the tear away. 

There whispers in my ear 
A voice, that speaks of heaven and thee. 

And bids me seek thee there. 

Ohio Stale Journal. 
* These lines were written by a convict in the Ohio Penitentiary. 



THE WORLD TO COME. 



BT EOWEIXG. 



Ir all our hopes and all our fears 

Were prison'd in life's narrow bound, — 
If, travellers through tliis vale of tears. 

We saw no better world beyond,^ 
Oh ! what could chef k the rising sigh. 

What earthly things could pleasure give? 
Oh ! who could venture then to die — 

Or who could venture then to live ? 
Were life a dark and desert moor, 

Where mist and clouds eternal spread 
Their gloomy veil, behind, before. 

And tempests thunder overhead,— 



Where not a sunbeam breaks the gloom, 

And not a flower smiles beneath, — 
Who could live in such a tomb— 

Who dwell in darkness and in death ? 
And such were life without the ray 

By our divine religion given: 
'Tis this that makes our darkness day, 

'Tis this that makes our earth a heaven. 
Bright is the golden sun above. 

And beautiful the flowers that bloom; 
And all is joy, and all is love, 

Reflected from the world to come. 



DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN MIND. 113 



DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN MIND. 

The dignity of man consists in the elevation of his mind. In propor- 
tion as this is improved, he rises in the scale of being. Objects are dig- 
nified either from their intrinsic worth or from their connection with 
other objects. Through both these mediums we may contemplate the 
dignity of the human mind. The highest existence in the universe is 
mind. The material world is beheld with admiration. The heavens 
and the earth, and many events which result from the Divine power 
and government, are vast and wonderful — frequently awful and solemn ; 
in many instances, exquisitely beautiful, eminently sublime. But this 
outward system is itself the product of mind, and consequently inferior. 
All its harmony, beauty, and grandeur are the fruits and manifestations 
of thought. This is the supreme agency which gave being to all worlds ; 
the unseen power which at first spread out the heavens as a curtain, 
and hung the earth upon nothing ; which still bears up the pillars of the 
universe, and controls the destiny of all created beings. 

The human mind is noble in itself, but it assumes a more elevated 
rank from its intimate relation to the higher intelligences. It is the 
only existence on earth that bears the likeness of its Creator. It is true, 
the invisible Being is exhibited in all the works of his hands. His 
beauty is seen in the verdure, the fruits, and the flowers which adorn the 
surface of the earth. In all the signatures of order and design are seen 
the effects of his unsearchable wisdom. All that is fair in nature shows 
forth the uncreated excellence of the Eternal. In the spring, his life reani- 
mates the world. In all that is grand and sublime, his awful majesty is 
displayed. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds 
are the dust at his feet. How enhanced is the beauty, how exalted 
the grandeur, even of material substances, when employed to exhibit the 
wisdom, the benevolence, and the power of the Almighty ! But an in- 
comparably higher degree of dignity is conferred on the human mind. 
Other objects of creation are onl}^ the works of Jehovah, while this bears 
the bright impress of God himself; for God is mind. 

We usually judge of the dignity of objects and character by the 
attention which is paid to them. Should we see a stranger receiving to- 
kens of respect and friendship from the good and the great of the world, 
this simple fact would be sufficient to raise him in our estimation. What, 
then, must be the character of the human mind, which has received the 
most striking marks of attention from the highest order of beings ! An- 
gels manifest a deep interest in the development of that principle which 
assimilates man to his Maker; and it is more than probable that the 
great design of Nature's works is to furnish a school of instruction to 
intelligent beings. The book of creation and providence is enriched and 
embellished by its Author with whatever has a tendency to improve the 
mind, please the imagination, and interest the heart. In this exhaust- 
less fountain of knowledge, the intellectual and moral powers find theij^ 
k2 8 



114 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

nutriment, strength, expansion, and happiness. The contemplative 
mind sees itself surrounded with sources of the highest enjoyment. In 
every walk it can draw instruction from nature's pages, and every soli- 
tude retire within itself and feast upon its own resources. 

A cultivated mind commands the respect and admiration of the world. 
Hif'h intellectual endowments have preserved from oblivion the names 
of ancient sages, and will perpetuate the only true fame to the end of 
time. Men who retired from the theatre of action centuries ago, 
have, by strength and vigour of thought, procured a celebrity which has 
not only reached the present age, but which will extend in a rising grada- 
tion through centuries yet to come. 

The tyrant may, indeed, be remembered ; but the wise man is remem- 
bered and admired. The victorious general may retire from the field of 
battle followed by an applauding multitude ; but the man who furnishes 
to the world stores of deep and useful thought, confers a great blessing 
on his species, and purchases a renown which rests upon a firmer basis. 
"We would by no means detract from the merit which is considered due 
to corporeal strength, or to the beauty of the external form ; but this is 
not to be compared with that reputation which rests upon superior men- 
tal qualities. Every other criterion is far too low. " The mind is the 
standard of the man." 

The human mind, viewed as perfect in its intellectual and moral 
powers, is the greatest gift of God. " The omnipotent Creator, we have 
reason to think, can bestow nothing greater than intelligence, love, recti- 
tude, energy of will and of benevolent action ; for these are the splendours 
of his own nature." In imparting them to the mind, he gives it worth 
and dignity far superior to the external creation. "In this outward 
system, magnificent as it is — in the bright day and the starry night, in 
the earth and in the skies, we can discover nothing so vast as thought — 
so strong as the unconquerable purpose of duty — so sublime as the spirit 
of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice." 

In every survey of the mind, whether we view it through the medium 
of reason or revelation, we are filled with wonder and delight. The more 
we know of it, the more we shall desire to know. Considering his capa- 
cities, already great, yet continually enlarging, and that in a progression 
which knows no limits, we are lost in amazement. We know the powers 
of the mind, chiefly, as it is connected with material organs. These 
organs, though greatly instrumental to its acquisition of knowledge and 
pleasure, seem often to weaken its faculties and impede its operations. 
It can converse with an infinite variety of objects in the material and 
spiritual worlds. It can compose, combine, distinguish, reason, and judge. 
It can discover latent truth, and detect the false representations of the 
senses. At pleasure it can revive the past and anticipate the future. It 
ranges the wide creation, penetrates the deep recesses of the earth, and 
unlocks the mysteries of nature. It enables man to maintain an unri- 
valled dominion over other classes of existence on the earth ; to explore 
the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, and to render their numberless and 
diversified productions subservient to his own use. It can soar away to 
the planetary orbs, and investigate their laws and revolutions. But it 



DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN MIND. 115 

stops not here ; it ascends to God himself, and expands its faculties in 
the contemplation of his eternal nature and transcendent perfections. It 
can see the Deity sitting independent and alone before the world was ; 
witness the commencement of time; trace its various revolutions to the 
end; and then, rapt in its own peculiar vision, transport itself into futu- 
rity, and contemplate the world which we inhabit as but a small portion 
of the empire of God; time as lost in eternity; and all human affairs as 
mere incidental circumstances occurring to subserve the designs of the 
great Creator. By all this variety of action, its native energies are not 
impaired, but improved; not wearied, but refreshed; not satisfied with 
its present acquisitions, but stimulated to new and increased esertions : 
it asks no pause — it can be restrained by no limits. 

In addition to this, the mind is immortal. The material creation must 
yield to the wasting hand of time, and eventually dissolve away. Hu- 
man institutions and works of art inherit human frailty. The body itself 
is not exempt from the shafts of disease and the resistless hand of death. 
But the mind bids defiance to them all. It cannot be confined within 
the narrow boundaries of this life. It carries within itself ample proof 
of a higher destination. Nor do we think it inconsistent with reason or 
the religion of the Bible to suppose that its attainments in knowledge 
will remain unimpaired by the wreck of matter, will survive the last 
struggle of expiring nature, and continue to exert a growing influence in 
other worlds. We cannot believe that intellectual culture produces no 
fruit to be matured by immortality. Knowledge, whether it denote a 
memory of facts or that intrinsic worth which the mind derives from a 
careful study of the phenomena of nature, is lasting as the mind itself. 
Can it be supposed that the mind of an infant enters its future state of 
existence with the same majesty and strength as the mind of a Newton ! 
We will not believe in a principle which would break up the mental 
fabric, reared and adorned with so much care, and cast it in scattered 
fragments on the wide ocean of eternity. It shall be a consolation to the 
student, amid the toils and fatigues of mental discipline, that he cherishes 
an immortal mind — a mind which will enter eternity with the same in- 
tellectual character that it here possessed ; and which, should he be so 
happy as to enter the celestial Paradise above, may, by continued ad- 
vancement, gain a summit in glory and blessedness now far beyond the 
ken of the brightest seraph around the throne of God. 



I BELIEVE that if Christianity should be compelled to flee from the 
mansions of the great, the academies of the philosophers, the halls of 
legislators, or the throng of busy men, we should find her last and 
purest retreat with woman at the fireside ; her last altar would be the 
female heart ; her last audience would be the children gathered around 
the knees of a mother ; her last sacrifice, the secret prayer, escaping 
in silence from her lips, aad heard, perhaps, only at the throne of 
God. 



116 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



TI-IEILLINa SKETCH. 

FEOM SALATHIEL. 

A PORTAL of the arena opened, and the combatant, with a mantle 
thrown over his face and figure, was led into the surroundery. The lion 
roared and ramped against the bars of his den at the sight. The guard 
put a sword and buckler into the hands of the Christian, and he was left 
alone. He drew the mantle from his face, and bent a slow and firm look 
around the amphitheatre. His fine countenance and lofty bearing raised 
a universal shout of admiration. He might have stood for an Apollo 
encountering the Python. His eye at last turned on mine. Could I 
believe my senses? Constantius was before me. 

All my rancour vanished. An hour past, I could have struck the be- 
trayer to the heart — I could have called on the severest vengeance of man 
and heaven to smite the destroyer of my child. But to see him hope- 
lessly doomed, the man whom I had honoured for his noble qualities, 
whom I had even loved, whose crime was, at the worst, but the crime of 
giving way to the strongest temptation that can bewilder the heart of 
man ; to see the noble creature flung to the savage beast, dying in tor- 
tures, torn piecemeal before my eyes, and his misery wrought by me, I 
would have obtested earth and heaven to save him. But my tongue 
cleaved to the roof of my mouth. My limbs refused to stir. I would 
have thrown myself at the feet of Nero ; but I sat like a man of stone — ■ 
pale — paralyzed — the beating of my pulse stopped — my eyes alone alive. 

The gate of the den was thrown back, and the lion rushed in with a 
roar and a bound that bore him half across the arena. I saw the sword 
glitter in the air : when it waved again, it was covered with blood. A 
howl told that the blow had been driven home. The lion, one of the 
largest from Numidia, and made furious by thirst and hunger, an ani- 
mal of prodigious power, crouched for an instant, as if to make sure of 
his prey, crept a few paces onward, and sprang at the victim's throat. 
He was met by a second wound, but his impulse was irresistible. A cry 
of natural horror rang round the amphitheatre. The struggle was now 
for an instant, life or death. They rolled over each other; the lion, rear- 
ed upon his hind feet with gnashing teeth and distended talons, plunged 
on the man ; again they rose together. Anxiety was now at its wildest 
height. The sword now swung round the champion's head in bloody 
circles. They fell again, covered with blood and dust. The hand of 
Constantius had grasped the lion's mane, and the furious bounds of the 
monster could not loose his hold ; but his strength was evidently giving 
way — he still struck his terrible blows, but each was weaker than the 
one before ; till, collecting his whole force for a last effort, he darted one 
mighty blow into the lion's throat and sank. The savage beast yelled, and, 
spouting out blood, fled howling around the arena. But the hand still 
grasped the mane, and the conqueror was dragged whirling through the 
dupt at his heels. A universal outcry now arose to save him, if he were 



THEILLING SKETCH. IIT 

not already dead. But the Hon, though bleeding from every vein, was 
still too terrible, and all shrank from the hazard. At last, the grasp gave 
way, and the body lay motionless on the ground. 

What happened for some moments after, I know not. There was a 
struggle at the portal ; a female forced her way through the guards, 
rushed iu alone, and flung herself upon the victim. The sight of a new 
prey roused the lion; he tore the ground with his talons; he lashed his 
streaming sides with his tail ; he lifted up his mane and bared his fangs. 
But his approaching was no longer with a bound ; he dreaded the sword, 
and came snuffing the blood on the sand, and stealing round the body in 
circuits still diminishing. 

The confusion in the vast assemblage was now extreme. Voices in- 
numerable called for aid. Women screamed and fainted, men burst into 
indignant clamours at this prolonged cruelty. Even the hard hearts of 
the populace, accustomed as they were to the sacrifice of life, were roused 
to honest curses. The guards grasped their arms, and waited but for a 
sign from the emperor. But Nero gave no sign. 

I looked upon the woman's face ; it was Salome ! I sprang upon my 
feet. I called on her name ; called on her, by every feeling of nature, to 
fly from that place of death, to come to my arms, to think of the agonies 
of all that loved her. 

She had raised the head of Constantius on her knee, and was wiping 
the pale visage with her hair. At the sound of my voice, she looked up, 
and, calmly casting back the locks from her forehead, fixed her eyes upon 
me. She still knelt; one hand supported the head — with the other she 
pointed to it as her only answer. I again adjured her. There was the 
silence of death among the thousands around me. A fire dashed into 
her eye — her cheek burned — she waved her hand with an air of sui 



sorrow. 

"lam come to die," she uttered, in a lofty tone. '^This bleeding 
body was my husband — I have no father. The world contains to me but 
this clay in my arms. Yet," and she kissed the ashy lips before her, 
" yet, my Constantius, it was to save that father that your generous 
heart defied the peril of this hour. It was to redeem him from the hand 
of evil that you abandoned your quiet home I — Yes, cruel father, here 
lies the noble being that threw open your dungeon, that led you safe 
through the conflagration, that, to the last moment of his liberty, only 
sought how he might preserve and protect you.'" Tears at length fell 
in floods from her eyes. " But,'' said she, in a tone of wild power, " he 
was betrayed, and may the Power whose thunders avenge the cause of 
his people, pour down just retribution upon the head that dared" — 

I heard my own condemnation about to be pronounced by the lips of 
my own child. Wound up to the last degree of suffering, I tore my 
hair, leaped upon the bars before me, and plunged into the arena by her 
side. The height stunned me; I tottered a few paces and feih The lion 
gave a roar and sprang upon me. I lay helpless under him, I heard 
the gnashing of his white fangs above me. 

An exulting shout arose. I saw him reel as if struck — gore filled his 
jaws. Another mighty blow was driven to his heart. He sprang high 



118 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

in the air with a howl. He dropped ; he was dead. The amphitheatre 
thundered with acclamations. 

With Salome clinging to my bosom, Constantius raised me from the 
PTOund : — the roar of the lion had roused him from his swoon, and two 
blows saved me. The falchion had broken in the heart of the monster. 
The whole multitude stood up, supplicating for our lives in the name of 
filial piety and heroism. Nero, devil as he was, dared not resist the 
strength of popular feeling. He waved a signal to the guards; the 
portal was opened, and my children, sustaining my feeble steps, showered 
with garlands and ornaments from innumerable hands, slowly led me 
from the arena. 



CIECUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 

In the biographical sketch of Mr. Wirt, prefixed to Harper's edition 
of the " Letters of the British Spy," is related the following case of cir- 
cumstantial evidence : — 

"Just after his [Mr. Wirt's] resigning the chancellorship, he was 
employed, together with Mr. Tazewell and Mr. Semple, afterwards Judge 
Semple, in the defence of a man apprehended on some points of circum- 
stantial evidence so curious, that we are tempted to relate them. A per- 
son named St. Greorge, who resided near Williamsburg, was shot dead, 
one night, through the window of his own house. No trace appeared 
of the assassin, nor any circumstance that could indicate his enemy; 
only some duck-shot appeared in the wall near the ceiling. While the 
crowd, called out by the scene, stood confounded around the dead body, 
a bystander, v/ho had been employed by the late chancellor, a person 
remarkable to some degree of oddity for his habits of close and curious 
investigation, went out of the house, and, placing himself in the line of 
direction that the shot must have taken to the spot where they lodged, 
endeavoured to ascertain from that circumstance the exact position of 
the person who discharged the gun. While thus occupied, his eye was 
caught by a very small piece of paper on the ground, betwixt himself 
and the window, which appeared, on taking it up, to have been part of 
the wadding, and had on it what seemed to be two of the three strokes 
composing the letter m. One of the crowd, Stokes, exclaimed at this 
moment, " 1 wonder where Shannon is ; has any one seen Shannon V 
Shannon was the son-in-law of the deceased, and resided on the oppo- 
site shore of James River ; and it was soon ascertained that he had been 
seen in Williamsburg that day, with a gun on his shoulder. The gun, 
however, had no lock upon it, and a blacksmith, to whom Shannon had 
gone to have it repaired, stated that Shannon had left his workshop with 
it in this condition. The man was pursued, nevertheless, over the river, 
and to his own house, to which he was found not to have returned ; and 
was traced at length to a tavern, some thirty miles ofl", and caught in bed, 
with all his clothes on, sound asleep. He was seized as he lay, and on 
being searched, some duck-shot were found about him, and a letter with 
a part of it torn oif. When this letter was afterwards compared with 



THE BOHON UPAS TREE. 119 

the fragment of the wadding, the two were found to fit, and the letter 
m, before mentioned, to form part of the word my in the letter. On 
these circumstances, strengthened by the fact that the death of his father- 
in-law would have put Shannon in possession of his wife's fortune, he 
was brought to trial. A single juryman " stood out," as the phrase is, 
for ten days, and the defendant was discharged in consequence of this 
disagreement among his triers. No other circumstances ever threw light 
on this transaction." 



THE BOHON UPAS TREE. 

It is rather a singular phenomenon in the economy of nature, that the 
island of Java should produce at the same time the mangosteen, the most 
mellow and luscious of fruits, and the deadly upas, the most malignant 
of poisons. In the journal of a botanist, lately deceased, whom Napo- 
leon sent to Java, in 1810, to make collections of plants for the imperial 
garden at St. Cloud, we find the substance of the following facts. The 
Bohon Upas is situated in a valley, watered by a rivulet, and encom- 
passed by hills, at the distance of fourteen leagues from Batavia. The 
hills and mountains in its vicinage are entirely barren and denuded, as 
no verdure can vegetate where the breeze wafts the pestilential vapours 
that arise from the pestiferous gum of the upas. The French botanist, 
anxious, on his return to France, to be able to lay before the empe- 
ror a correct description of the Java tree, made, at the risk of his life, 
a tour all round this dangerous spot, at about four leagues distance 
from its deleterious influence ; and in every direction of his circuit, he 
found vegetation literally annihilated, and the aspect of the country the 
most dismal and dreary that could be imagined. Near the easiest ascent 
of one of the hills, about sixteen miles from the station of the' tree, 
there resided then an old Malayan priest, whose office it was to pre- 
pare for eternity the souls of ];hose who, for difi"erent crimes, were 
sent to procure the poison, which is a commodity that yields the native 
government a considerable revenue. The poison is a gum, which, like 
the camphor, issues from the bark. Malefactors under the sentence of 
death are the only persons who are compelled to gather this deadly and 
baneful gum. The ministers of the native sovereign provide them with 
a tortoise-shell box, in which they are to put the pestiferous gum. 
These devoted criminals proceed to the house of the high-priest, where 
they remain until the wind blows in a favourable direction, so as to bear 
the effluvia from them. As soon as the desired breeze arises, the priest 
prepares them for their approaching fate. At the moment of departure, 
the priest puts on them a leather cap, with two glasses before their eyes, 
which comes down to their breast. Thus equipped, they set out on a 
journey to that fatal "bourn" from which but few travellers return. 
The old ecclesiastic assured our traveller, that during a residence of thirty 
years on this great thoroughfare of death, he had witnessed the depart- 
ure to the upas of more than eight hundred unhappy beings, out of 
whom not more than thirty ever returned. Those who escaped the 
dreadful influence of the upas described it as a middling-sized tree, 



120 FIELDS'S SCRAP-EOOK. 

decorated with branches of the most vivid verdure. It broods sullenly 
over a rivulet, as a landmark of vegetation, in the barren vale of the 
wilderness over which it waves its poisoned foliage. 

While our traveller remained in the island of Java, he witnessed the 
following horrid instance of the destructive power of the upas poison. 
In February, 1810, he was present at the execution of twelve of the 
Javanese king's mistresses, who were convicted of being faithless to 
him. 

The fair and interesting criminals were led into the great court of the 
palace of Soura Charta, where a judge passed sentence of death ou 
them. After going through many religious ceremonies, the executioner 
stripped their breasts, and then chaining each of the hapless delinquents 
to a post, he proceeded to make an incision on the bosom with a lancet 
poisoned with the upas. The operation was performed on them all in 
the space of two minutes; and with such celerity did the poison destroy 
the vital principle, that these unfortunate women, the victims of a 
savage, were all dead in less than a quarter of an hour. 

" Some hours after their death," says our traveller, " their bodies 
were full of livid spots, their faces swelled, the colour of their skin 
changed to a kind of blue, and their eyes were completely spotted with 
yellow hues." 

We believe that medical men estimate the upas as the most deadly 
of all vegetable poisons. In times of war, it is the practice of the 
Malayans to throw the upas gum into the springs and rivulets in order 
to poison them. The other parts of the island of Java are remarkably 
healthy ; prolific and rich in a soil that produces an abundance of the 
finest fruits — such as the cocoa, palm, shaddock, oranges, lemons, citrons, 
tamarinds, mangoes, pine-apples, bananas, sweet-sops, grapes, custard- 
apples, melons, pomegranates, figs, and the delicious mangosteen, es- 
teemed the best fruit of the East. 



THE TiaER'S CAVE. 

AN ADVENTURE AMONG THE MOUNTAINS OF QUITO. 

On leaving the Indian village, we continued to wind round Chimbo- 
razo's wide base ; but its snow-crowned head no longer shone above us 
in clear brilliancy, for a dense fog was gathering gradually around it. 
Our guides looked anxiously towards it, and announced their apprehen- 
sions of a violent storm. We soon found that their fears were well 
founded. The fog rapidly covered and obscured the whole of the moun- 
tain ; the atmosphere was suifocating, and yet so humid that the steel- 
work of our watches was covered with rust, and the watches stopped. 
The river beside which we were travelling rushed down with still greater 
impetuosity ; and from the clefts of the rocks which lay on the left of 
our path were suddenly precipitated small rivulets, that bore the roots 
of trees and innumerable serpents along with them. These rivulets 
often came down so suddenly and violently, that we had great difficulty 



THE tiger's cave. 121 

in preserving our footing. The tliiander at length began to roll, and 
resounded through the mountainous passes with the most terrific gran- 
deur. Then came the vivid lightning, flash following flash — above, 
around, beneath — everywhere a sea of fire. We sought a momentary 
shelter in a cleft of the rocks, while one of our guides hastened for- 
ward to seek a more secure asylum. In a short time he returned, and 
informed us that he had discovered a spacious cavern, which would afford 
us sufficient protection from the element. We proceeded thither imme- 
diately, and with great difficulty, and not a little danger, at last got 
into it. 

The noise and raging of the storm continued with so much violence, 
that we could not hear the sound of our voices. I had placed myself 
near the entrance of the cave, and could observe, through the opening, 
which was straight and narrow, the singular scene without. The highest 
cedar-trees were struck down, or bent like reeds; monkeys and parrots 
lay strewed upon the ground, killed by the falling branches ; the water 
had collected in the path we had just passed, and hurried along it like a 
mountain stream. From every thing I saw, I thought it extremely pro- 
bable that we should be obliged to pass some days in this cavern. When 
the storm, however, had somewhat abated, our guides ventured out, in 
order to ascertain if it were possible to continue our journey. The 
cave in which we had taken refuge was so extremely dark, that if we 
moved a few paces from the entrance, we could not see an inch before 
us ; and we were debating as to the propriety of leaving it, even before 
the Indians came back, when we suddenly heard a singular groaning or 
growling at the farther end of the cavern, which instantly fixed all our 
attention. Wharton and myself listened anxiously, but our daring and 
inconsiderate young friend Lincoln, together with my huntsman, crept 
about upon their hands and knees, and endeavoured to discover, by 
groping, from whence the sound proceeded. They had not advanced 
far into the cavern before we heard them utter an exclamation of sur- 
prise ; and they returned to us, each carrying in his arms an animal 
singularly marked, and about the size of a cat, seemingly of great 
strength and power, and furnished with immense fangs. The eyes were 
of a green-colour ; strong claws were upon their feet ; and a blood-red 
tongue hung out of their mouths. Wharton had scarcely glanced at 
them, when he exclaimed, in consternation, " Grood God ! we have come 
into the den of a" — He was interrupted by a fearful cry of dismay 
from our guides, who came rushing precipitately towards us, calling out, 
*' A tiger ! a tiger I" and at the same time, with extraordinary rapidity, 
they climbed up a cedar-tree, which stood at the entrance of the cave, 
and hid themselves among the branches. 

After the first sensation of horror and surprise, which rendered me 
motionless for a moment, had subsided, I grasped my firearms. Wharton 
had already regained his composure and self-possession ; and he called 
to us to assist him instantly in blocking up the mouth of the cave with 
an immense stone, which fortunately lay near it. The sense of approach- 
ing danger augmented our strength, for we now distinctly heard the 
growl of the ferocious animal, and we were lost beyond redemption if it 
L 



122 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

reached the entrance before we could get it closed. Ere this was done, 
we could distinctly see the tiger bounding towards the spot, and stooping 
in order to creep into his den by the narrow opening. At this fearful 
moment our exertions were successful, and the great stone kept the wild 
beast at bay. There was a small open space, however, left between the 
top of the entrance and the stone, through which we could see the head 
of the animal, illuminated by its glowing eyes, which it rolled, glaring 
with fury, upon us. Its frightful roaring, too, penetrated to the depths 
of the cavern, and was answered by the hoarse growling of the cubs, 
which Lincoln and Frank had now tossed from them. Our ferocious 
enemy attempted first to remove the stone with his powerful claws, and 
then to push it with his head from its place ; and these efforts, proving 
abortive, served only to increase his wrath. He uttered a tremendous 
heart-piercing howl^ and his flaming eyes darted light into the darkness 
©f our retreat. 

"Now is the time to fire at him," said Wharton, with his usual calm- 
ness ; " aim at his eyes ; the ball will go through his brain, and we shall 
then have a chance to get rid of him." 

Frank seized his double-barrelled gun, and Lincoln his pistols; the 
former placed the muzzle within a few inches of the tiger, and Lincoln 
did the same. At Wharton's command, they both drew the triggers at 
the same moment, but no shot followed. The tiger, who seemed aware 
that the flash indicated an attack upon him, sprang growling from the 
entrance, but, feeling himself unhurt, immediately turned back again, and 
stationed himself in his former place. The powder in both pieces was 
wet; they, therefore', proceeded to draw the useless loading, while 
Wharton and myself hastened to seek our powder-flask. It was so ex- 
tremely dark, that we were obliged to grope about the cave ; and, at 
last, coming in contact with the cubs, we heard a rustling noise, as if they 
were playing with some metal substance, which we soon discovered was 
the canister we were looking for. Most unfortunately, however, the 
animals had pushed off the lid with their claws, and the powder had 
been strewed over the damp earth and rendered entirely useless. This 
horrible discovery excited the greatest consternation. 

" All is now over," said Wharton. " We have only now to choose 
whether we shall die of hunger, together with these animals who are 
shut up along with us, or open the entrance to the bloodthirsty monster 
without, and so make a quicker end of the matter." 

So saying, he placed himself close beside the stone, which, for the mo-< 
ment, defended us, and looked undauntedly upon the lightning eyes of 
the tiger. Lincoln raved and swore; and Frank took a piece of strong 
cord from his pocket and hastened to the farther end of the cave — ^I 
knew not with vrhat design. We soon, however, heax-d a low, stifled 
groaning; and the tiger, who had heard it also, became more restless 
and disturbed than ever. He went backwards and forwards before the 
entrance of the caA^e, in the most wild, impetuous manner, then stood still, 
and stretching out his neck in the direction of the forest, broke forth into 
a deafening howl. Our two Indian guides took advantage of this oppor- 
tunity to discharge several arrows from the tree. He was struck more 



THE TIGEE'S cave. 123 

than once, but the light weapons bounded back harmless from his thick 
skin. At length, however, one of them struck him near the eye, and the 
arrow remained sticking in the wound. He now broke anew into the 
wildest fury, and sprang at the tree, and tore it with his claws, as if he 
would have dragged it to the ground. But, having at length succeeded 
in getting rid of the arrow, became more calm, and laid himself down 
as before in front of the cave. 

Frank now returned from the lower end of the den, and a glance showed 
us what he had been doing. In each hand, and dangling from the end 
of a string, were the two cubs. He had strangled them ; and before 
we were aware what he intended, he threw them through the opening to 
the tiger. No sooner did the animal perceive them, than he gazed earn- 
estly upon them, and began to examine them closely, turning them cau- 
tiously from side to side. As soon as he became aware that they were 
dead, he uttered so piercing a howl of sorrow that we were obliged to 
put our hands to our ears. When I upbraided my huntsman for the 
cruel action he had so rashly committed, I perceived by his blunt and 
abrupt answers that he also had lost all hope of rescue from our im- 
pending fate, and, that, under these circumstances, the ties between 
master and servant were dissolved. For my own part, without knowing 
why, I could not help believing that some unexpected assistance would 
yet rescue us from so horrible a fate. Alas ! I little anticipated the 
sacrifice that my rescue was to cost. 

The thunder had now ceased, and the storm had sunk to a gentle 
gale; the songs of birds were again heard in the neighbouring forest, 
and the sunbeams sparkled in the drops that hung from the leaves. We 
saw through the aperture that all nature was reviving after the wild war 
of elements which had so recently taken place ; but the contrast only 
made our situation the more horrible. We were in a grave from which 
there was no deliverance ; and a monster, worse than the fabled Cerberus, 
kept watch over us. The tiger had laid himself down beside his whelps. 
He was a beautiful animal, of great size and strength, and his limbs 
being stretched out at their full length, displayed bis immense power 
of muscle. A double row of great teeth stood far enough apart to show 
his large red tongue, from which the white foam fell in large drops. All 
at once, another roar was heard at a distance, and the tiger immediately 
rose and answered it with a mournful howl. At the same instant, our 
Indians uttered a shriek, which announced that some new danger threat- 
ened us. A few moments confirmed our worst fears, for another tiger, 
not quite so large as the former, came rapidly towards the spot where 
we were. 

" This enemy will prove more cruel than the other," said Wharton ; 
" for this is the female, and she knows no pity for those who deprive 
her of her young." 

The howls which the tigress gave, when she had examined the bodies 
of her cubs, surpassed every thing of horrible that we had yet heard ; 
and the tiger mingled his mournful cries with hers. Suddenly her roar- 
ing was lowered to a hoarse growling, and we saw her anxiously stretch 
out her head, extend her wide and smoking nostrilS; and look as if she 



124 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

■^^ere determined to discover immediately the murderers of her young. 
Her eyes quickly fell upon us, and she made a spring forward with the 
intention of penetrating to our place of refuge. Perhaps she might 
have been enabled by her immense strength to push away the stone, had 
we not, with all our united power, held it against her. When she found 
that all her eiforts were fruitless, she approached the tiger, who lay 
stretched beside his cubs, and he arose and joined in her hollow roar- 
ings. They stood together for a few moments, as if in consultation, and 
then suddenly went off at a rapid pace, and disappeared from our sight. 
Their howling died away in the distance, and then entirely ceased. We 
now began to entertain better hopes of our condition 5 but Wharton 
shook his head. '' Do not flatter yourselves," said he, '■'■ with the belief 
that these animals will let us escape out of their sight till they have 
had their revenge. The hours we have to live are numbered." 

Nevertheless, there still appeared a chance for our rescue, for, to our 
surprise, we saw both our Indians standing before the entrance, and heard 
them call to us to seize the only possibility of our yet saving ourselves 
by instant flight, for that the tigers had only gone round the height to 
seek another inlet to the cave, with which they were no doubt acquainted. 
In the greatest haste the stone was pushed aside, and we stepped forth 
from what we had considered a living grave. Wharton was the last who 
left it ; he was unwilling to lose his double-barrelled gun, and stopped 
to take it up ; the rest of us only thought of making our escape. We 
now heard once more the roaring of tigers, though at a distance ; ■ and, 
following the example of our guides, we precipitately struck into a side- 
path. From the number of roots and branches of trees with which the 
storm had strewed our way, and the slipperiness of the road, our flight 
was slow and diflicult. Wharton, though an active seaman, had a heavy 
step, and had great difiiculty in keeping pace with us, and we were often 
obliged to slacken our own on his account. 

We had proceeded thus for about a qu.arter of an hour, when we found 
that our way led along the edge of a rocky cliif, with innumerable 
fissures. We had just entered upon it, when, suddenly, the Indians, 
who were before us, uttered one of their piercing shrieks, and we imme- 
diately became aware that the tigers were in pursuit of us. Urged by 
despair, we rushed towards one of the breaks, or gulfs, in our way, over 
which was thrown a bridge of reeds, that sprang up and down at every 
step, and could be trodden wdth safety by the light foot of the Indians 
alone. Deep in the hollow below rushed an impetuous stream, and a 
thousand pointed and jagged rocks threatened destruction on every side. 
Lincoln, my huntsman, and myself, passed over the chasm in safety; 
but Wharton was still in the middle of the waving bridge, and endea- 
vouring to steady himself, when both the tigers were seen to issue from 
the adjoining forest; and, the moment they descried us, they bounded 
towards us, with dreadful roarings. Meanwhile, Wharton had nearly 
gained the safe side of the gulf, and we were all clambering the rocky cliff, 
except Lincoln, who remained at the reedy bridge to assist his friend to 
step upon firm ground. Wharton, though the ferocious animals were close 
upon him, never lost his courage or presence of rnind. As soon as he 



THE TIGER'S CAVE, 12-'^ 

had gained the edge of the cliff, he knelt down, and, with the edge of his 
sword, divided the fastenings by which the bridge was attached to the 
rock. He expected an effectual barrier would thus be put to the farther 
progress of our pursuers : but he was mistaken ; for he had scarcely 
accomplished his task, when the tigress, without a moment's pause, 
rushed towards the chasm, and attempted to bound over. It was a fear- 
ful sight to see the mighty animal, suspended for a moment in the air 
above the abyss ; but the scene passed like a iSash of lightning. Her 
strength was not equal |to the distance : she fell into the gulf, and before 
she reached the bottom, she was torn into a thousand pieces by the jag- 
ged points of the rocks. Her fate did not in the least dismay her com- 
panion : he followed her with an immense spring, and reached the opposite 
side, but only with his fore-claws, and thus he clung to the edge of the 
precipice, endeavouring to gain a footing. The Indians again uttered 
a wild shriek, as if all hope had been lost. But Wharton, who was 
nearest to the edge of the rock, advanced courageously towards the tiger, 
and struck his sword into the animal's breast. Enraged beyond all 
measure, the wild beast collected all his strength, and, with a violent 
effort, fixing one of his hind-legs upon the edge of the cliff, he seized 
Wharton by the thigh. The heroic man still preserved his fortitude; 
he grasped the trunk of a tree with his left hand, to steady and support 
himself, while with his right he wrenched and violently turned the sword 
that was still in the breast of the tiger. All this was the work of an 
instant. The Indians, Frank, and myself hastened to his assistance ; 
but Lincoln, who was already at his side, had seized Wharton's gun, 
which lay near, upon the ground, and struck so powerful a blow with 
the butt-end upon the head of the tiger, that the animal, stunned and 
overpowered, let go his hold, and fell back into the abyss. All would 
have been well, had it ended thus ; but the unfortunate Lincoln had not 
calculated upon the force of his blow ; he staggered forward, reeled upon 
the edge of the precipice, extended his hand to seize upon any thing 
to save himself — but in vain. His foot slipped ; for an instant he ho- 
vered over the gulf, and then was plunged into it to rise no more ! — 
Ed'mhiirgh Literary Journal. 



Woman's charms are certainly many and powerful. The expand- 
ing rose, just bursting into beauty, has an irresistible bewitchingness : the 
blooming bride, led triumphantly to the hymeneal altar, awakens admi- 
ration and interest, and the blush of her cheek fills with delight. 
But the charm of maternity is more sublime than all these. Heaven 
has imprinted in the mother's face something beyond this world, some- 
thing which claims kindred with the skies — the angelic smile, the tender 
look, the waking, watchful eye, which keeps its fond vigil over the 
slumberino; babe. 



126 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE PESTILENCE. 

In my mind, the urn-burial of the ancients has always been sacredly 
and pleasantly associated. The clean, white marble, containing the 
purified remains of all we have loved, is an object around which affec- 
tion loves to linger ; but the damp, dark grave, with its silent, loathsome 
work of corruption, is a revolting subject of cdhtemplation, even where 
love is stronger than death. Then there is the fear of being buried 
before the vital spark is extinct, and of returning to consciousness with 
the weight of the earth upon you, and the fresh air of heaven shut out 
for ever ! To me this idea is so terribly distinct, that it is the spectre 
of my waking hours and the nightmare of my dreains. Death himself 
has no horrors for me : though well content with life, and bound to it 
by the strongest ties, I think I could calmly close my eyes beneath its 
oblivious touch ; but human nature shrinks at the thought of being 
buried alive ! Perhaps the vividness of this impression is owing to the 
remark I frequently heard from an aged relative, while I was yet a very 
small child, that " hundreds and hundreds were buried before they were 
dead, when the yellow fever raged so terribly in Boston." That period 
is well remembered by our fathers, when pestilence walked abroad at 
noonday, and the hearth-stone was silent and dreary as the tomb. The 
death-carts went their continued round through every hour of the day 
and night, and, unshrouded and uncoffined, the newly dead were hurried 
to their last home. I knew a man who, during this time of peril, was 
snatched from the grave merely by the persevering aifection of his wife. 
Of the correctness of the story there is no doubt; for I have often 
heard it repeated by both the parties concerned. This awful visitation 
of God came upon them when they were newly married ; when exist- 
ence was happiness, and separation worse than death. The young hus- 
band became a victim to that disease, which was breathing destruction 
over the city. The friends of his wife urged her to seek refuge in the 
country, and not risk her own life in a useless attempt to save his. But 
no persuasion could induce her to leave him ; night and day she was by 
his bedside ; and, in the anguish of her heart, she prayed that the pesti- 
lence might likewise rest upon her. But her prayer was not answered — 
surely and rapidly it did its work upon all her heart held dear ; but 
to her, death would not come, though she prayed for it, and sought it 
with tears. She had inhaled the breath of her dying husband ; but to 
her it was harmless ; and, in the madness of despair, she repined at the 
merciful decrees ©f Heaven. 

No one was with her in the house — she was alone with the dead. 
Suddenly, the silence of the deserted streets was interrupted by the rum- 
bling of the death-carts ; and she knew they had come to take him away 
from her sight for ever ; and with the thought, it suddenly flashed into 
her mind, that life might still be in him ! Her entreaties excited com- 
passion, and she was permitted to keep the corpse one half-hour longer. 
The impression made upon her mind had the strength of inspiration} 



THE PESTILENCE. 12T 

and thougli every restorative ■wliich ingenuity could devise had failed 
to produce effect, she would not relinquish hope. Again the carts came 
round, and the solemn sound, " Bring out the dead," disturbed the 
fearful stillness. Again the young wife entreated, wept, and screamed : 
the hearts of the men, whose dreadful employment accustomed them 
to such scenes, were touched ; but they would not yield. They said, 
^' The safety of the city required them to be firm in the discharge of 
their duty j that they had already disobeyed strict orders, and they dared 
not do it again ; that the hope of restoring him was mere insanity ; it 
was evident he had long been dead." 

When she found they would not be moved by her prayers, she threw 
her arms around the body, and clung to it with the strength of madness ; 
declaring, if they buried one, they should bury both. The men, after a 
few gentle attempts to remove her, dashed the tears from their eyes, and 
saying, " We cannot separate them," left her another half-hour of hope. 
The moments of that interval had a value, of which mortals under or- 
dinary circumstances can form no conception. Restorative after re- 
storative was applied; but all in vain. With sickening anxiety, she 
fastened her eyes upon the watch, and then on the stiff, cold form beside 
her. The half-hour had nearly gone ; in five minutes, they would again 
come to claim the dead ; and she felt that she must resist no longer ! 
She breathed into his nostrils — she moved her hand upon his chest, to 
restore the action of the lungs — but no change came over his rigid features. 
She bathed his temples and moistened his lips with sal volatile — the 
terrible rumbling of carts was heard in the distance — and, in the trem- 
bling eagerness of the moment, she spilled the contents of the phial 
into his nostrils — a sudden convulsion passed over the face of the dead ! 
a short, quick gasp — and the eyes heavily opened ! 

The men with the death-carts were startled by a loud, shrill shriek, 
that sounded as if it tore asunder the soul from which it came. When 
they entered, they found the dead living, and the living senseless. 

Both husband and wife were soon after restored to health. They 
lived to be the parents of a numerous family ', and the husband now 
survives her, who, with the strong arm of love, thus snatched him from 
an early grave. 



General Arnold. ^During the traitor Arnold's predatory opera- 
tions in Virginia, in 1781, he took an American captain prisoner. After 
some general conversation, he asked the captain, " What he thought the 
Americans would do with him, if they caught him ?" The captain de- 
clined at first giving him an answer; but, upon being repeatedly urged, 
he said, " Why, sir, if I must answer the question, you will excuse my 
telling you the truth : if my countrymen should catch you, I believe 
they would first cut off your lame leg, which was wounded in the cause 
of freedom and virtue at Quebec, and bury it with the honours of war, 
and afterwards hang the remainder of your body upon a gibbet." 



128 



FIELDS S SCKAP-BOOK. 



JEPHTHAH'S EASH VOW. 



From the Xlth chapter of Judges. 



BT MISS HOWARD. 



The battle had ceased and the victory was won, 

The wild cry of horror was o'er; 
Now arose in his glory the bright-heaming snn, 
And with him his journey tlie war-chief begun. 

With a soul breathing vengeance no more. 

The foes of his country lay strew'd on the plain, 

A tear stole its course from his eye ; 
The warrior disdain'd every semblance of pain ; 
He thought of his child — of his country, again. 

And suppressed, while 'twas forming, a sigh. 

" Oh ! Father of light !" said the conquering chief, 

" The vow that I made, I renew ; 
'Twas thy powerful arm gave the welcome relief, 
When I call'd on thy name in the fulness of grief. 

When my hopes were but cheerless and few." 

"An offering of love will I pay to thy name. 

An cffei'ing thou wilt not despise ; 
The FiEST being I meet, when I welcome again 
The land of my fathers I left not in vain. 

With the flames on thine altar shall rise." 

Now hush'd were his words ; through the far-spreading 
bands. 

Naught was heard, save the footfall around. 
Till his lips in wild joy press his own native lands. 
And to Heaven are lifted his trembling hands. 

While the silence is still and xirofound. 

Oh, listen ! at distance what wild music sounds, 

And at distajUce what maiden appears ? 
See ! forward she comes with a light-springingbound, 
And casts her mild eyes in fond ecstasy round. 
For a parent is seen through her tears. 

Her harp's wildest strain gave a thrill of delight, 

A moment — she springs to his arms ; 
" My daughter ! — O God !" Not the horror of fight, 
While legions on legions against him unite. 

Could bring on his soul such alarms. 

In wild horror he starts as a fiend had appear'd ; 

His eyes in mute agony close ; 
His sword o'er his age-frosted visage is rear'd, 
Which with scars fromhis many fought battles is 
sear'd: 

Nor his country nor daughter he knows. 

But sudden conviction in quick flashes told 
That his daughter was destined to die ! 

Oh ! no longer could nature the wild struggle hold ; 

His grief issued forth unconstrain'd, uncontroU'd, 
And the tears dimm'd his time-wither'd eye. 

His daughter was weeping, and clasping that form 

She ne'er touch'd, but with transport, before ; 
His daughter was watching the thundering storm, 



Whose quick flashing lightnings so madly deform 
A face beaming sunshine before. 

But how did that daughter, so gentle and fair, 
Hear the sentence that doom'd her to die ? 

For a moment her eye gave a heart-moving glare. 
For a moment her bosom heaved high ! 

It was BUT a moment — the frenzy was past. 

She SMILINGLY rush'd to his arms ; 
And, there, as a flower, when chill'd by the blast. 
Reclines on the oak, till its fury be past. 

On his bosom she hush'd her alarms. 

Not an eye saw the scene but was moisteu'd with wo. 

Not a voice could a sentence command ; 
Down the soldier's rough cheek tears of agony flow. 
While the sobs of tlie maiden heaved mournful and 
slow: 
Sad pity wept over the land. 

But fled was the hope in the maiden's sad breast; 

From her fond father's bosom she rose — 
Mild virtue appear'd in her manner confest. 
She look'd like a saint from the realms of the blest. 

Not a mortal encircled with woes. 

She turn'd from the group— and can I declare 
The hope and the fortitude given ? , 

As she sank on her knees, with a soul-breathing 
prayer, 

That her father might flourish, of virtue the care. 
Till with glory he'd flourish in heaven. 

" Oh! comfort Mm, Heaven, when low in the dust 

My limbs are inactively laid ; 
Oh ! comfort liira. Heaven, and let him then trust 
That, free and immortal, the souls of the just 

Are in glory and beauty array'd." 

The maiden arose — and can I portray 

The devotion that glow'd in her eye ? 
Religion's sweet self in its light seem'd to stray 
With the mildness of night, with the glory of day. 

But 'twas pity tliat prompted her sigh. 

"My father!" — the chief raised his dim, weeping eye, 

With a look of unspeakable wo — 
" Jly father !" her voice seem'd convulsed with a sigh. 
But the tears, as they gush'd from her grief-swollen 
eye, 

Told more than her words could bestow. 

The weakness was past — and the maiden could say, 

" My father ! for thee I can die !" 
The bands slowly moved on their sorrowful way. 
But never again from that lieart-breaking day 
Was a tear known to force its enlivening ray 

On the old chieftain's grief-speaking eye. 



ATTEMPT TO TAKE ARNOLD. 129 



ATTEMPT TO TAKE AKNOLD. 

G-ENERAL Washington, having learned whither Arnold had fled, deem- 
ed it possible still to take him, and bring him to the just reward of his 
treachery. To accomplish an object so desirable, and at the same time, 
in so doing, to save Andre, Washington devised a plan, which, although 
it ultimately failed, evinced the greatness of his powers, and his unwea- 
ried ardour for his country's good. 

Having matured the plan, Washington sent for Major Lee to repair 
to head-quarters, (at Tappan, on the Hudson.) " I have sent for you," 
said G-eneral Washington,/' in the expectation that you have some one in 
your corps who is willing to undertake a delicate and hazardous project. 
Whoever comes forward will confer great obligations on me personally, 
and, in behalf of the United States, I will reward him amply. No time 
is to be lost ; he must proceed, if possible, to-night. I intend to seize 
Arnold and save Andre." 

Major Lee named a sergeant-major of his corps, by the name of 
Champe, a native of Virginia } a man full of bone and muscle ; with a 
countenance grave, thoughtful, and taciturn ; of tried courage and inflexi- 
ble perseverance. 

Champe was sent for by Lee, and the plan proposed. This was for 
him to desert — to escape to New York — to appear friendly to the ene- 
my — to watch Arnold, and, upon some fit opportunity, with the assistance 
of some one whom Champe could trust, to seize him, and conduct him to 
an appointed place on the river, where boats should be in readiness to 
:^ar them away. 

Champe listened to the plan attentively — but, with the spirit of a man 
of honour and integrity, replied, "that it was not danger nor diflliculty 
that deterred him from immediately accepting the proposal, but the 
ignominy of desertion, and the liypocrisi/ of enlisting with the enemy !" 

To these objections, Lee replied that, although he would appear to 
desert, yet, as he obeyed the call of his commander-in-chief, his depar- 
ture could not be considered as criminal, and that, if he suffered in. 
reputation for a while, the matter should one day be explained to his 
credit. 

As to the second objection, it was urged, that to bring such a man as 
Arnold to justice — loaded with guilt as he was — and to save Andre — so 
young — so accomplished — so beloved — to achieve so much good in the 
cause of his country — was more than sufficient to balance a wrong exist- 
ing only in appearance. 

The objections of Champe were at length surmounted, and he accepted 
the service. It was now eleven o'clock at night. With his instructions 
in his pocket, the sergeant returned to camp, and, taking his cloak, valise, 
and orderly-book, drew his horse from the picket, and mounted, putting 
himself upon fortune. 

Scarcely had half an hour elapsed before Captain Carnes, the officer of 
the day, waited upon Lee, who was vainly attempting to rest, and in- 

9 



130 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

formed him that one of the patrol had fallen in with a dragoon, who, 
being challenged, put spurs to his horse, and had escaped. 

Lee, hoping to conceal the flight of Champe, or at least to delay pur- 
suit, complained of fatigue, and told the captain that the patrol had 
probably mistaken a countryman for a dragoon. Carnes, however, was 
not thus to be quieted • but withdrew to assemble his corps. 

On examination, it was found that Champe was absent. The captain 
now returned and acquainted Lee with the discovery, adding that he had 
detached a party to pursue the deserter, and begged the major's written 
orders. 

After making as much delay as was practicable without exciting sus- 
picion, Lee delivered his orders — in which he directed the party to take 
Champe if possible. ''Bring him alive," said he, "that he may suffer 
in the presence of the army ; but kill him, if he resists, or if he escapes 
after being taken." 

A shower of rain fell soon after Champe's departure, which enabled 
the pursuing dragoons to take the trail of his horse — his shoes, in com- 
mon with those of the horses of the army, being 'made in a peculiar 
form, and each having a private mark, which was to be seen in the 
path. 

Middleton, the leader of the pursuing party, left the camp a few 
minutes past twelve, so that Champe had the start of him but little 
more than an hour — a period by far shorter than had been contem- 
plated. 

During the night, the dragoons were often delayed in the necessary 
halts to examine the road ; but on the coming of morning, the impres- 
sion of the horse's shoes was so apparent, that they pressed on with 
rapidity. 

Some miles above Bergen, (a village three miles north of New York, 
on the opposite side of the Hudson,) on ascending a hill, Champe was 
descried, not half a mile distant. Fortunately, Champe descried his pur- 
suers at the same moment, and, conjecturing their object, put spurs to 
his horse, with the hope of escape. 

By taking a different road, Champe was for a time lost sight of; but, 
on approaching the river, he was again descried. Aware of his danger, 
he now lashed his valise, containing his clothes and orderly-book, to 
his shoulders, and prepared himself to plunge into the river, if ne- 
cessary. 

Swift was his flight and swift was the pursuit. Middleton and his 
party were within a few hundred yards, when Champe threw himself 
from his horse, and, plunging into the river, called aloud upon some 
British galleys, at no great distance, for help. 

A boat was instantly despatched to the sergeant's assistance, and a 
fire commenced upon the pursuers. Champe was taken on board, and 
soon after carried to New York, with a letter from the captain of the 
galley, stating the past scene, all of which he had witnessed. 

Adjoining the house in which Arnold resided, and where it was de- 
signed to seize and gag him, Champe had taken off several of the 
palings, and replaced them, so that with ease, and without noise, he 



ATTEMPT TO TAKE ARNOLD. 131 

could readily open liis way to the adjoining alley. Into this alley he 
intended to convey his prisoner, aided by his companion, one of two 
associates who had been introduced by the friend to whom Champe had 
been originally made known by letter from the commander-in-chief, and 
with whose aid and counsel he had so far conducted the enterprise. 
His other associate was, with the boat, pi-epared at one of thq. wharves 
on the Hudson river, to receive the party. 

Champe and his friend intended to have placed themselves each under 
Arnold's shoulder, and to have thus borne him through the most unfre- 
quented alleys and streets to the boat, representing Arnold, in case 
of being questioned, as a drunken soldier, whom they were conveying to 
the guard-house. 

When arrived at the boat, the difficulties would be surmounted, 
there being no danger or obstacle in passing to the Jersey shore. These 
particulars, as soon as made known to Lee, were communicated to the 
commander-in-chief, who was highly gratified with the much-desired 
information. He desired Major Lee to meet Champe, and to take care 
that Arnold should not be hurt. 

The day arrived, and Lee, with a party of accoutred horses, — one for 
Arnold, one for the sergeant, and the third for his associate, who was to 
assist in securing Arnold, — left the camp, never doubting of the success 
of the enterprise, from the tenor of the last received communication. 
The party reached Hoboken about midnight, where they lay concealed 
in the adjoining wood — Lee. with three dragoons, stationing himself near 
the shore of the river. Hour after hour passed, but no boat approached. 

At length the day broke, and the major retired to his party, and with 
his led horses, returned to the camp, where he proceeded to head-quarters, 
to inform the general of the much-lamented disappointment, as morti- 
fying as inexplicable. Washington, having perused Champe's plan and 
communication, had indulged the presumption that at last the object of 
his keen and constant pursuit was sure of execution, and did not dis- 
semble the joy such a conviction produced. He was chagrined at the 
issue, and apprehended that his faithful sergeant must have been detected 
in the last scene of his tedious and difficult enterprise. 

In a few days, Lee received an anonymous letter from Champe's patron 
and friend, informing him, that on the day preceding the night fixed for 
the execution of their plot, Arnold had removed his quarters to another 
part of the town, to superintend the embarkation of troops, preparing, 
as was rumoured, for an expedition to be directed by himself; and that 
the American legion, consisting chiefly of American deserters, had been 
removed from their barracks to one of the transports, it being appre- 
hended that, if left on shore until the expedition was ready, many of 
them might desert. 

Thus it happened that John Champe, instead of crossing the Hudson 
that night, was safely deposited on board one of the fleets of trans- 
ports, from whence he never departed, until the troops under Arnold 
landed in Virginia. Nor was he able to escape from the British array 
until after the junction of Cornwallis at Petersburg, when he deserted; 
and proceeding high up into Virginia, he passed into North Carolina, 



132 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

near the Saury towns, and keeping in the friendly districts of that State, 
safely joined the army soon after it had passed the Congaree, in pursuit 
of Lord Kawdon. 

His appearance excited extreme surprise among his former comrades, 
which was not a little increased, when they saw the cordial reception he 
met with from the late major, now Lieutenant Colonel Lee. His whole 
story was soon known to the corps, which reproduced the love and re- 
spect of both officers and soldiers, (heretofore invariably entertained 
for the sergeant,) heightened by universal admiration of his late daring 
and arduous attempt. 

Champe was introduced to General Greene, who very cheerfully com- 
plied with the promise made by the commander-in-chief, so far as in his 
power ; and, having provided the sergeant with a good horse and money 
for his journey, sent him to General Washington, who munificently 
anticipated every desire of the sergeant, and presented him with a dis- 
charge from further service, lest he might, in the vicissitudes of war, fall 
into the hands of the enemy, when, if recognised, he was sure to die on 
the gibbet. 

We shall only add, respecting the after-life of this interesting adven- 
turer, that when General Washington was called by President Adams, in 
1798, to the command of the army prepared to defend the country 
against French hostility, he sent to Lieutenant Colonel Lee, to inquire 
for Champe ; being determined to bring him into the field at the head 
of a company of infantry. Lee sent to Loudon county, Virginia, where 
Champe settled after his discharge from the army, when he learned that 
the gallant soldier had removed to Kentucky, where he soon after died. 



THE KOSE. 



This beautiful shrub is found in almost eyery country ; and in almost 
every country, its beauty and fragrance have made it the ornament of 
the garden, and an object of admiration. Nature, as if delighted with 
this exquisite production of her hand, has multiplied its species and va- 
rieties to an almost unlimited extent ; and the poet has sung its praises 
in all nations and in all ages. It has been wedded to the nightingale, 
and its fragrance and beauty have been the theme of every tongue. In 
Shiraz and Cashmere the rose is peculiarly odoriferous, and yields the 
most fragrant attar, or essential oil. 

Who has not heard of the vale of Cashmere, 
With its roses, the brightest that earth ever gave ? 

Moore. 

Rhodes is said to owe its name to the immense quantity of roses 
which it produces. In the East, this flower is particularly esteemed. 
The Guebers believe that when Abraham was thrown into the fire, by 
order of Nimrod, the flame turned into a bed of roses. The Turks con- 
ceive that it sprang from the perspiration of Mohammed, and they cause 
a rose to be sculptured on the monument of all ladies that die unmarried. 
The mythological writers say that Apollo caused Hhodante, Queen of 



THE ROSE. 133 

Corinth, in consequence of her extreme beauty, to be changed into a 
rose. The first rose is said to have been given by the god of love to 
Harpocrates, the god of silence, to engage him to conceal the amours 
of his mother Venus, and hence it was made the symbol of silence. A 
rose was always placed above the heads of the guests in the banqueting 
rooms, to banish restraint, and to denote that nothing said there should 
be repeated elsewhere ; and thus originated the saying suh rosa, under 
the rose, when a secret was to be kept. The perfume of this flower is 
thus accounted for by the fabulous authors : Love, at a feast of Olympus, 
in the midst of a lively dance, overset, with a stroke of his wing, a goblet 
of nectar, which, falling on the rose, enbalmed it with the delicious 
fragrance it still retains. And Catullus thus accounts for the colour of 
this flower, it having been originally white : 

While the enamour'd queen of joy 
Flies to protect her lovely boy, 

On whom the jealous war-god rushes, 
She treads upon a thorned rose, 
And, while the wound with crimson flows. 

The snowy floweret feels her blood, and blushes. 

The petals of the rose are the only part of the flower that imparts the 
odorous matter to water, both by distillation and infusion. The attar, 
or essential oil, is obtained from various species of the rose. The odour, 
though generally agreeable, has in some instances produced faintings, 
hysterical ajffections, inflammations of the eyes, &c. Orfila mentions an 
instance of a celebrated painter, who could not remain in any room 
where there were roses, without being in a short time attacked with vio- 
lent cephalalgia, succeeded by fainting. Dr. Priestley thinks these effects 
are owing to the carbonic acid gas which these flowers exhale. We will 
conclude this article with an account of the process employed in Asia 
in making essential oil or attar of roses. Forty pounds of roses, with 
their calixes, are put into a still, with sixty pounds of water ; the mass, 
being well mixed in the still, is placed over a gentle fire, and when 
fumes begin to rise, the cap and pipe are properly fixed and luted. 
When the impregnated water begins to come over, the fire is lessened by 
gentle degrees, and the distillation continued, until thirty pounds of 
water have come over. This water is to be poured upon forty pounds 
of fresh roses, and thence are to be drawn from fifteen to twenty pounds 
of distilled water. It is then poured into earthenware pans or tinned 
metal, and left exposed to the fresh air for the night : the attar oil will 
be found in the morning congealed and swimming on the surface of the 
water. 



A Frenchman, meeting an English soldier with a Waterloo medal, 
began sneeringly to animadvert on the British government for bestowing 
such a trifle, which did not cost them three francs. " That is true, to 
be sure," replied the hero, " it did not cost the English government 
three francs, but it cost the French a Napoleon." 
M 



134 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 



THE HUNGARIAN HOESE-DEALER. 

On the third night after his departure from Vienna, he stopped at a 
quiet inn, situated in the suburbs of a small town. He had never been 
there before, but the house was comfortable, and the appearance of the 
people about it respectable. Having first attended to his tired horse, he 
sat down to supper with his host and family. During the meal, he was 
asked whence he came, and when he said from Vienna, all present were 
anxious to know the news. The dealer told them all he knew. The 
host then inquired what business had carried him to Vienna. He told 
them he had been there to sell some of the best horses that were ever 
taken to that market. When he heard this, the host cast a glance at 
one of the men of the family, who seemed to be his son, which the dealer 
scarcely observed then, but which he had reason to recall afterwards. 
When supper was finished, the fatigued traveller requested to be shown 
to his bed. The host himself took up a light, and conducted him across 
a little yard at the back of the house to a detached building, which 
contained two rooms, tolerably decent for an Hungarian hotel. In the 
inner of these rooms was a bed, and here the host left him to himself. 
As the dealer threw off his jacket and loosened the girdle around his 
waist, where his money was deposited, he thought he might as well see 
whether it was all safe. Accordingly, he drew out an old leathern purse, 
that contained his gold, and then a tattered parchment pocket-book, that 
enveloped the Austrian bank notes, and finding that both were quite 
right, he laid them under the bolster, extinguished the light, and threw 
himself on the bed, thanking God and the saints, that had carried him 
thus far homeward in safety. He had no misgivings as to the character 
of the people he had fallen among to hinder his repose, and the poor 
dealer was very soon enjoying a profound and happy sleep. 

He might have been in this state of beatitude an hour or two, when 
he was disturbed by a noise like that of an opening window, and by a 
sudden rush of cool night air ; on raising himself on the bed, he saw, 
peering through an open window — which was almost immediately above 
the bed — the head and shoulders of a man who was evidently attempting 
to make his ingress into the room that way. As the terrified dealer 
looked, the intruding figure was withdrawn, and he heard a rumbling 
noise, and then the voices of several men, as he thought, close under 
the window. The most dreadful apprehensions, the more horrible as 
they were so sudden, now agitated the traveller, who, scarcely knowing 
what he did, but utterly despairing of preserving his life, threw himself 
under the bed. He had scarcely done so, when the hard breathing of a 
man was heard at the open window, and the next moment a robust 
fellow dropped into the room, and, after staggering across it, groped his 
way by the walls to the bed. Fear had almost deprived the horse-dealer 
of his senses, but yet he perceived that the intruder, whoever he might 
be, was drunk. There was, however, slight comfort in this, for he might 
only have swallowed wine to make him the more desperate, and the 



THE HUNGARIAN HOESE-DEALER. 135 

traveller was convinced he had heard the voices of other men without, 
who might climb into the room to assist their brother villain, in case any 
resistance should be made. His astonishment, however, was great and 
reviving, when he heard the fellow throw off his jacket on the floor, and 
then toss himself upon the bed under which he lay. 

Terror, however, had taken too firm a hold of the traveller to be 
shaken off at once, — his ideas were too confused to permit his imagining 
any other motive for such a midnight intrusion on an unarmed man with 
property about him, save that of robbery and assassination, and he lay 
quiet where he was, until he heard the fellow above him snoring with all 
the sonorousness of a drunkard. Then, indeed, he would have left his 
hiding-place, and gone to rouse the people in the inn, to get another 
resting-place instead of the bed of which he had been dispossessed in so 
singular a manner; but, just as he came to this resolution, he heard the 
door of the outer room open — then stealthy steps across it — then the 
door of the very room he was in was softly opened, and two men, one 
of whom was the host and the other his son, appeared on its threshold. 

"Leave the light where it is," whispered the host, " or it may disturb 
him, and give us trouble." 

" There is no fear of that," said the younger man, also in a whisper; 
"we are two to one ; he has nothing but a little knife about him — he is 
dead asleep, too ! hear how he snores !" 

" Do my bidding," said the old man sternly. " Would you have him 
wake, and rouse the neighbourhood with his screams ?" 

As it was, the horror-stricken dealer under the bed could scarcely sup- 
press a shriek, but he saw that the son left the light in the outer room, 
and then, pulling the door partially after them, to screen the rays of 
the lamp from the bed, he saw the two murderers glide to the bedside, 
and then heard a rustling motion, as of arms descending on the bed- 
clothes, and a hissing, and then a grating sound, that turned his soul 
sick, for he knew it came from knives or daggers penetrating to the 
heart or vitals of a human being like himself, and only a few inches 
above his own body. This was followed by one sudden and violent start 
on the bed, accompanied by a moan. Then the bed, which was a low 
one, was bent by an increase of weight caused by one or both the mur- 
derers throwing themselves upon it, until it pressed on the body of the 
traveller. 

There was an awful silence for a moment or two, and then the host 
said, " He is finished — I have cut him across the throat — take the money, 
I saw him put it under his bolster." 

" I have it, here it is," said the son ; " a purse and a pocket-book." 

The traveller was then relieved from the weight that had oppressed 
him almost to suffocation ; and the assassins, who seemed to tremble as 
they went, ran out of the room, took up the light, and disappeared alto- 
gether from the apartment. No sooner were they fairly gone, than the 
poor dealer crawled from under the bed, took one desperate leap, and 
escaped through the little window by which he had seen enter the un- 
fortunate wretch who had evidently been murdered in his stead. He 
ran with all his speed into the town, where he told his horrid story and 



136 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

miraculous escape to the night-watch. The night-watch conducted him 
to the burgomaster, who was soon aroused from his sleep and acquainted 
with all that had happened. 

In less than half an hour from the time of his escape from it, the 
horse-dealer was again at the murderous inn with the magistrate, and a 
strong force of the horror-stricken inhabitants and the night-watch, who 
had run thither in the greatest silence. In the house, all seemed as still 
as death ; but, as the party went round to the stables, they heard a noise. 
Cautioning the rest to surround the inn and the outhouses, the magis- 
trate, with the traveller and some half dozen armed men, ran to the 
stable-door ; this they opened, and found within the host and his sou 
digging a grave. The first figure that met the eyes of the murderers 
was that of the traveller. The effect of this on their guilty souls was 
too much to be borne ; they shrieked, and threw themselves on the 
ground, and though they were immediately seized by hard griping hands 
of real flesh and blood, and heard the voices of the magistrate and their 
friends and neighbours, denouncing them as murderers, it was some 
minutes ere they could believe that the figure of the traveller that stood 
among them was other than a spirit. It was the hardier villain, the 
father, who, on hearing the stranger's voice continuing in conversation 
with the magistrate, first gained sufficient command over himself to 
raise his face from the earth ; he saw the stranger still pale and haggard, 
but evidently unhurt. 

The murderer's head spun round confusedly ; but, at length rising, he 
said to those who held him, " Let me see that stranger nearer ; let me 
touch him — only let me touch him !" The poor horse-dealer drew back 
in horror and disgust. " You may satisfy him in this,'' said the magis- 
trate ; " he is unarmed and unnerved, and we are here to prevent his 
doing you harm." On this, the traveller let the host approach him, and 
pass his hand over his person, which, when he had done, the villain 
exclaimed, " I am no murderer ! Who says I am a murderer ?" '' That 
shall we see anon," said the traveller, who led the way to the detached 
apartment, followed by the magistrate, by the two prisoners, and all the 
party which had collected in the stable on hearing what passed there. 
Both father and son walked with considerable confidence into the room, 
but when they saw, by the lamps the night-watch and others held over 
it, that there was a body, covered with blood, lying upon the bed, they 
cried out, " How is this ! who is this !" and rushed together to the bed- 
side. 

The lights were lowered ; their rays fell upon the ghastly face and 
bleeding throat of a young man. At the sight, the younger of the mur- 
derers turned his head, and swooned in silence ; but the father, uttering 
a shriek so loud, so awful, that one of the eternally damned alone might 
equal its efi'ect, threw himself on the bed, on the gashed and bloody 
body, and, murmuring in his throat, "My son ! I have killed my own 
son !" also found a temporary relief from the horrors of his situation in 
insensibility. The next minute, the wretched hostess, who was innocent 
of all that had passed, and who was, without knowing it, the wife of a 
murderer,' the mother of a murderer, and the mother of a murdered son — 



THE HUNGARIAN HORSE-DEALER. 137 

of a son killed by a brother and a father — ran to the apartment, and 
would have increased tenfold its already insupportable horrors, by enter- 
ing there; had she not been prevented by the honest townspeople. She 
had been roused from sleep by the noise made in the stable, and then 
by her husband's shriek^ and was now herself, shrieking and frantic, car- 
ried back into the inn by main force. 

The two murderers were forthwith bound and carried to the town jail, 
where, on the examination, which was made the next morning, it 
appeared from evidence that the person murdered was the youngest son 
of the landlord of the inn, and a person never suspected of any crime 
more serious than habitual drunkenness j that, instead of being in bed as 
his father and brother had believed him, he had stolen out of the house, 
and joined a party of caronsers in the town ; of these boon companions, 
all appeared in evidence, and two of them deposed that the deceased, 
being exceedingly intoxicated, and dreading his father's wrath, should 
he rouse the house in such a state, and at that late hour, had said to 
them that he would get through the window into the little detached 
apartment, and sleep there, as he had often done before, and that they 
two had accompanied him, and assisted him to climb to the window. 
The deceased had reached the window once, and, as they thought, would 
have got safe through it, but, drunk and unsteady as he was, he slipped 
back; they had then some difficulty in inducing him to climb again, for, 
in the caprice of intoxication, he said he would rather go sleep with one 
of his comrades. However, he had at last effected his entrance, and 
they, his two comrades, had gone to their respective homes. The 
wretched criminals were executed a few weeks after the commission of 
the crime. They had confessed every thing, and restored to the horse- 
dealer the gold and the paper-money they had concealed, and which had 
led them to do a deed so much more atrocious than even they had con- 
templated. — The Lives and Ex^yloits of Banditti and Robbers. 



ELEGANT EXTRACT. 



Give me to know that the doctrine of Jesus is bread from heaven, and 
that it sustains the spirit and prepares it for heaven, and I well may be 
indifferent whether that bread descended, like the manna in the desert, 
in nightly dew, or whether, like the food of Elijah, it was brought to 
my eager hands by the ravens, or whether it was broken for myself and 
the hungry thousands around me, by the hand endued with miraculous 
power. So long as I know that it was sent to me by the Father of my 
spirit, and that, eating it, I shall live for ever, I know that can give it 
value, and awaken my gratitude. When some friendly hand presses a 
cup of cold water to my lips, as I am hunting with thirst in a thirsty 
land, I will not ask, for I do not care, whether that water was showered 
from the skies or gushed from a spring. I ask not whether it was brought 
me in a golden urn, or whether it was presented in a crystal vase or a 
soldier's helmet. It is water that bids me live, and that is enough for 



138 riELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 



TELESCOPE— MICROSCOPE— THE INSECT WORLD. 

"While the telescope enables us to see a system in every star, the 
microscope unfolds to us a world in every atom. The one tells us that 
this great globe on which we live, with its nine hundred millions of 
people, its various countries, is but a grain of sand in the vast field of 
immensity; the other tells us that every atom may harbour the tribes 
and families of a busy population. The one shows us the insignificance 
of the world we inhabit ; the other redeems it from all insignificance ; 
for it tells us that in the leaves of every forest, in the flowers of every 
garden, in the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with 
life, and as numberless as the stars in the firmament. The one tells us, 
that above and beyond all that is visible to man, there may be regions 
of creation which sweep along in the bounds of space, and carry the 
impress of the Almighty's hand to the remotest and never-ending scenes 
of the universe ; the other, that within and beneath all that wonderful 
minuteness which the eye of man, aided by the microscope, can discover, 
there may still be a world of invisible beings ; and that could we draw 
aside the mysterious veil which shrouds it from our senses, we might 
behold a theatre of as many wonders as astronomy can unfold — a whole 
universe within the compass of a point so small as to elude observation, 
even with the aid of a microscope, but yet large enough for the Almighty 
Ruler of all things to find room for the exercise of his wonderful at- 
tributes ; where he can raise another mechanism of worlds, and animate 
them with his handiwork, and for his glory. 

A mere glance at the insect world, or so much of it as we can behold, 
is calculated to fill the mind with astonishment at the wonderful multi- 
plicity of animal life. In that very large portion of the globe covered 
by the waters of the Pacific Ocean, are to be found coral islands twelve 
hundred miles wide. Some of them dip down into the ocean more than 
seven thousand feet. These immense formations are the result of the 
labour of an animal so small that they may be compared to the finest 
threads. They consist of an oval hollow body, without a head. They 
have stomachs with but one opening, which is armed with feelers ar- 
ranged around a sort of a mouth. These feelers move about in search 
of food, which consists of smaller animals which come within their 
reach. The coral is composed of a secretion of calcai-eous matter, 
something like the nails or bones in man. The microscope shows us 
how it seizes and swallows its prey. If an animalcula passes by, it 
throws its feelers, tentacula, or arms, around it, and brings it to the 
mouth. The coral ceases to grow when the animal is not reached by the 
washing of the sea. In such cases, the rocky skeleton remains, and is 
continually catching, as they float on the waves, fragments of wood, 
leaves, and sand. Presently a decomposition of these matters take 
place, and a soil is produced. Now, from a few stray seeds begin to 
sprout trees and shrubbery ; in a little while they begin to grow up, and 
a beautiful island for the habitation of man is produced by the dead 



THE EXILE OF SCIO. 139 

bodies of these insects of such minute dimensions. What was formerly 
a sterile lime-rock, once the abode of myriads of these little animals, 
becomes the home of man. 

The smallest animals yet exhibited by the microscope are the monads. 
They are generally from the one-twelve hundredth to the one twenty- 
four thousandth part of an inch in diameter. They have a mouth and 
a digestive apparatus. A silicious covering of a species of these animals 
compose the rock known as Tripoli, and the rock on which Richmond 
in Virginia is built. In Norway, this kind of rock is known as moun- 
tain meal, and is used as food by some of the inhabitants. It requires 
millions of millions of these little creatures to fill the space of a single 
cubic inch, and yet, by furnishing them with a species of coloring matter 
for food, men have been able to investigate the process of digestion, and 
arrive at facts relating to their general formation. What innumerable 
mysteries there are in matter, as well as in mind ! 



THE EXILE OF SCIO. 



The following is one of those splendid productions which occasionally 
enrich the pages of the London New Monthly Magazine, conducted by 
the distinguished T. Campbell. The article is one of a series of letters, 
written from the Levant, by a gentleman of intelligence and learning, 
who has spent some time in surveying the ruins of Greece and its ill- 
fated islands. The slaughter at Scio will long be remembered as a scene 
of almost unexampled barbarity and cruelty ; and the present instance , 
of fortitude in a young lady, who could summon up philosophy suffi- 
cient to smear herself with the oozing blood of a lifeless mother, and 
feign death, while the savage Turk approached, twisted her delicate hand, 
and sliced the flesh from her finger, is but one of a thousand, which 
characterize the Grrecian heart of steel. — Ulster Repub. 

The svin was slowly sinking behind the range of Hymettus and the 
hills of Attica, as we weighed anchor from Cape Collona, and steered 
for the narrow strait between Zea and Cythnos. The morning we had 
passed in wandering through the groves of laurel and mastic, which 
cover the promontory of Sunium, and in lingering among the fast-de- 
caying ruins of the temple of Minerva. 

The town and temple of Sunium were built during the brightest days 
of G-reece — the age of Pericles ; of the one not a vestige is left, and all 
that remains of the other are a few shattered columns supporting a frieze 
which fronts the " island-gemmed -^gean." 

I had seen nearly all the temples now remaining in Greece ; but none, 
not even Athens itself, is calculated to produce such vivid emotions as 
that of Sunium. The greater number of them are seated in frequented 
spots and surrounded by the bustle of the crowd. Sunium stands alone ; 
its heavy columns look but on the blue hills of Attica or the azure 
billows of the ^gean ; all is solitude around it, save the whirl of the 
seabird round its summit, or the waving of the olive-groves at its base ] 



140 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

and the only sound that awakes its silence is the sigh of the summer 
wind, or the murmur of the waves that roll into the time-worn eaves 
beneath it. 

The succeeding day was calm, and we lay almost motionless in the 
narrow strait which separates the islands of Zea and Cythnos. The 
former contains now no object of attraction amidst its sunburnt hills 
and barren valleys, except the snowy walls of its villages, and the 
vestiges of a temple once dedicated to Minerva, and built, as our pilot 
said, by Nestor, on his return from Troy. Cythnos is a hilly, fertile 
mound, rising gently from the sea, and remarkable for nothing but warm 
springs, from which it takes the modern name of Thermia. We passed 
the strait, borne slowly along by the current, and, about midday, lay 
totally becalmed in a little bay formed by the islands we had left, and 
those of Gyarus and Syra. 

There is no spot, not even the very sea, of Grreece, that wants its pe- 
culiar attractions ; every valley has its ruin, every hill its history, and 
every wave is associated with the naval enterprises and martial spirit of 
the mighty dead. Even those spots unmarked by earlier memorials of 
the fame of Greece, are rendered interesting by the after-recollection of 
Iier fall. Age has succeeded age but to leave the impress of its events 
on the shore where true greatness first burst to light. The same soil 
once trod by the bard and the warrior was again pressed by the feet of 
those who bore over the earth the pure precepts of the gospel and of 
Christianity ; and where even these have left no traces of their path, 
the immortalizing hand of Liberty is now raising on every hill a trophy 
and inscribing on every rock a triumph. 

In the evening, as there was still no appearance of wind, a few of the 
oSicers landed at Syra, within a very short distance of which we were 
floating on an almost breathless sea. 

The following day a strong head-wind detained us till evening; beat- 
ing through the Strait of Scio, and alternately tacking from its wooded 
coast to Ghesme and Asia Minor. This beautiful arm of the sea, once 
celebrated as the scene of the defeat of Antiochus, has in later days been 
rendered doubly interesting by the struggles of Greece. It was at Chesme 
that, in 1770, the Russian Admiral Orlow destroyed the Ottoman fleet; 
and it was in this same strait that, in 1822, the modern Themistocles 
consigned to destruction the author of the Sciote massacre. The view on 
either side was splendidly beautiful ; but, on both, the associations of me- 
mory cast a feeling of disgust on every object; we could not look on the 
verdant hills of Scio without a shuddering recollection of the slaughter 
that had so lately stained them, while the opposite and equally beautiful 
coast was alike detestable as the home of its perpetrators. But while 
to us the scene was any thing but a pleasing one, there was one indi- 
vidual on board our vessel to whom the sight of this devoted island 
served to summon up the most heart-rending reflections. This was a 
young Greek lady, of twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, a native 
of the island, a witness of its massacre, and a destitute exile in conse- 
quence of "he murder of her family. She was now on her way with us 
to Smyrna, in order to place herself under the protection of a distant 



THE EXILE OF SCIO. 141 

relative, -whom she hoped, though faintly, to find still surviving. She 
sat all day upon the deck, watching with wistful eyes the shores of her 
native island; at every approach which our vessel made towards it, she 
seemed straining to recognise some scene tlftit had once been familiar, 
or, perhaps, some now deserted house that had once been the shelter of 
her friends; and, when, on the opposite tack, we again neared the 
Turkish coast, she turned her back on its hated hills, to watch the retreat- 
ing shores of her desolated home. I had not been aware of hor being on 
board, as her national I'etiring habits had prevented her appearing upon 
deck during the early part of her voyage ; but as she drew near Scio, 
feeling seemed to overcoiye education and prejudice, and she sat all day 
beneath the awning, to satiate herself with gazing, and with recollection. 

Towards evening, we drew near the ruined town, built on the seashore, 
at the foot of a wooded hill, which had been the site of the ancient city 
of Scio. Its houses seemed all roofless and deserted, while the nume- 
rous groups of tall and graceful cypress, which arose amid them, con- 
trasted sadly with the sui-rounding desolation. All was solitude and 
silence ; we could not descry a single living creature on the beach, while 
from the shattered fortress on the shore the blood-red flag of Mohammed 
waved in crimson pride above the scene of its late barbarous triumph. 
At snnset, the wind changed ; we passed the Spalmadores and Ipsara, 
and, rounding the promontory of Erythrse, entered the bay of Smyrna. 
As we caught the last glimpse of the ruins of Scio, the unfortunate lady 
pointed out the remains of a house, to the north of the town, which had 
been her father's; it was now in ruins, and, as clearly as we could dis- 
cern, appeared to be of large dimensions, and situated on one of the 
most picturesque points of Scio. Her name she said was Kalerdji, and 
her father had been one of the commissioners for collecting the revenue 
of the sultan from the gum-mastic of the island. On the breaking out 
of the revolution in the Morea, strong apprehensions of a similar revolt 
in Scio were entertained in the Divan, and a number of the most distin- 
guished Greeks of the island were selected to be sent to Constantinople 
as hostages for the loyalty of the remainder ; among these were her 
father and her only brother; herself, her mother, and two elder sisters 
being left alone at Scio. Tranquillity continued undisturbed in the 
island for more than a year ; though the accounts of the reiterated suc- 
cesses of the Moreots were daily stirring up the energies of the inhabit- 
ants, whose turbulence was only suppressed by the immediate dread of 
the Turkish garrison in the Genoese fortress on the beach, the only 
stronghold in Scio. 

One evening, however, a squadron of three vessels, manned with Sami- 
ans, entered the harbour, attacked the unsuspecting garrison, and, aided 
by the lowest rabble of the town, succeeded in despatching the guard, 
and taking possession of the fortress. But the deed was done without 
calculation, and could be productive of no beneficial result : the fort was 
untenable, and on the almost immediate arrival of the Ottoman fleet, a 
capitulation without a blow ensued. The news brought by the hostile 
armament was of the instant execution of the ill-fated hostages, the mo- 
ment the accounts reached the Porte. .Overwhelmed for the loss of their 



142 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

only and clearly beloved protectors, the family of Kalerdji spent tLe 
few intervening days in vain but poignant regret; and, in the seclusion 
of their bereft mansion, they knew nothing of what was passing at town; 
where, while the Greeks wfre occupied in supplications and submission 
to the captain pacha, and the Turks in false protestations of forgiveness 
and amnesty, the troops of the sultan embarked at the fortress. At 
length, the preparations for slaughter were completed, and the work of 
death commenced. 

It was on the evening of the third day from the arrival of the Turkish 
admiral that the family of the wretched being who lived to tell the 
tale descried the flames that arose from the l^urning mansions of their 
friends, and heard, in the calm silence of twilight, the distant death- 
screams of their butchered townsmen, while a few flying wretches, 
closely pursued by their infuriate murderers, told them but too truly of 
their impending fate. As one of the most important in the valley, their 
family was almost the first marked for murder, and, ere they had a mo- 
ment to think of precaution, a party of Turkish soldiers beset the house, 
which afibrded but few resources for refuge or concealment. From a 
place of imperfect security, the distracted Phrosine was an involuntary 
witness to the murder of her miserable sisters, aggravated by every insult 
and indignity suggested by brutality and crime, while her frantic mother 
was stabbed upon the lifeless corpses of her violated offspring. Satiated 
with plunder, the monsters left the house in search of further victims, 
while she crept from her hiding-place, to take a last farewell of her 
butchered parent, and fly for refuge to the mountains. She had scarcely 
dropt a tear over the immolated remains of all that was dear to her, 
and made a step towards the door, when she perceived a fresh party of 
demons already on the threshold. Too late to regain her place of refuge, 
death, with all its aggravated horrors, seemed now inevitable, till, on 
the moment, she adopted an expedient. She flew towards the heap of 
slaughter, smeared herself with the still oozing blood of her mother, and, 
falling on her face beside her, she lay motionless as death. The Turks 
entered the apartment, but finding their errand anticipated, were again 
departing, when one of them discovered a sparkling gem on the finger 
of Phrosine, and returned to secure it. He lifted the apparently lifeless 
hand, and attempted to draw it off"; it had, however, been too long, too 
dearly worn ; it was the gift of her affianced husband, and had tarried 
till it was now only to be withdrawn from the finger by an effort. The 
Turk, however, made but quick work ; after in vain twisting her delicate 
hand in every direction to accomplish his purpose, he drew a knife from 
his girdle, and commenced slicing off the flesh from her finger. This 
was the last scene she could remember. It was midnight when she 
awoke from the swoon into which her agony, and her effort to conceal it, 
had thrown her ; and she lay cold and benumbed, surrounded by the 
now clotted blood of her last loved friends. Necessity now armed her 
with energy ; no time was left for consideration, and day would soon be 
breaking. She arose, and, still faint with terror and the loss of blood, 
flew to the spot where the valuables of the house had been concealed. 
Disposing of the most portable about her person, she took her way to 



A EIVEH THE EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE. 143 

the mountains. She pointed out to us the cliff where she had long lain 
concealed, and the distant track by which she had gained it, through a 
path at every step impeded by the dead or dying remains of her country- 
men. By the time she imagined the tide of terror had flowed past, when 
she no longer observed from her lofty retreat the daily pursuits and 
murder of the immolated Sciots, and when she saw the Ottoman fleet sail 
from the harbour, beneath its crimson pennon, now doubly tinged with 
blood, she descended, with her fugitive companions, to the opposite side 
of the island. Here, after waiting for many a tedious day, she succeeded 
in getting on board of an Austrian vessel, the master of which engaged 
to land her at Hydra, in return for the quantity of jewels and gold she 
had been enabled to save. She reached the island in safety, where she 
had remained for nearly two years ; but finding or fancying her various 
benefactors to be weary of their charge, she was now going to seek, even 
in the land of her enemies, a relative, who had been living at Smyrna, 
but whom she knew not if she should still find surviving or fallen by 
the sabre of their common enemy. 

Her tale was told with the calm composure of oft-repeated and long- 
contemplated grief; she shed no tears in its relation; she scarcely heaved 
a sigh over her sorrows ; she seemed, young as she was, to have already 
made up her alliance with misery. She had now, she said, but one hope 
left; and if that should fail, she had only death to look to. 



A RIVER THE EMBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE. 

The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls 
into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and pictu- 
resque country, nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its 
dew or spray. In this, its state of infancy and youth, it may be com- 
pared to the human mind, in which fancy and strength of imagination 
are predominant ; it is more beautiful than useful. When the different 
rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and 
stately in its motions ; it is applied to move machinery, to irrigate mea- 
dows, and to bear upon its bosom the stately barge ; in this mature state, 
it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on towards the sea, it loses 
its force and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost and mingled 
with the mighty abyss of waters. Pursuing the metaphor farther, we 
may say, that in its origin, its thundering and foam, when it carries 
down clay from the bank, and becomes impure, it resembles the youth- 
ful mind affected by dangerous passions. And the influence of a lake, 
in calming and clearing the turbid water, may be compared to the effect 
of reason in more mature life, when the calm, deep, cool, unimpassioned 
mind is freed from its fever, its troubles, bubbles, noise, and foam. And, 
above all, the sources of a river, which may be considered as belonging 
to the atmosphere, and its termination in the ocean may be regarded 
as imaging the divine origin of the human mind, and its being, ulti- 
mately, returned to, and losfe in, the Infinite and Eternal Intelligence 
from which it sprang. 



144 



FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE EXILE. 



Boll on, ye white snrges, -with dreadful commotion, 
And swallow me up with this desolate shore ; 

And waft, ye kind winds, o'er the deep-billow'd ocean, 
A sigh to the land I shall visit no more. 

Oh, tell me, kind sun, are thy genial rays beaming 
Where once was the home of the good and the brave ? 

Oh, say, dost thou find the bright day-star yet gleaming. 
When thou biddest adieu to the oi-ient wave ? 

Oh, tell me, wild cormorant, thy course art thou 
bending 

To bring to this hell of keen arigiiish a smile ? — 
Oh, say, is a friend— if a friend I have— sending 

Some news that shall light up this storm-beaten isle J 

But see, in the heavens, the tempest, impending. 
Has doom'd me afar from my fathers to die ; 

And hark! the deep thunders the ocean-wave rending, 
Forbid me to hear from my cottage a sigh. 



Ah ! well I remember the scenes of my childhood. 
The hawthorn and ivy that twined round the door ; 

Full well I remember "the deep-tangled" wildwood. 
And e'en I remember the bleak, howling moor. 

Ah ! well I remember the moss round the fountain, 
Wliere many an hour I have slumber'd away; 

And, ah ! the green turf on the oak-shaded mountain, 
Where I and the watch-dog used often to play. 

But mercy, kind mercy, from memory sever 
The country and friends I can never more see: 

The child of misfortune, I'm here doom'd for ever 
To moiirn for a home, that perhaps mourns for me. 

Then roll on, ye surges, tyith dreadful commotion. 
And swallow m'e up with this desolate shore ; 

And end this keen misery, deep-billow'd ocean. 
For I sigh for a land I shall visit no more. 

Memo, 



TO THE SOUND OF A DISTANT BELL. 

The following effusion is copied, in the Essex Register, from a manuscript book of poems, written by 9, 
young man under confinement in the Massachusetts State Prison. 



AOAIN that sad and solemn tone— again that thrilling 

swell ! 
Those sounds create a Paradise within my dreary 

cell: 
Kich with the thoughts of other years, their music 

rushes on. 
And glads my heart, when every joy but memory is 

gone. 

Again, again— ye tell of days, when innocence was 

mine, 
■WTien I, an infant tendril, clung around my parent 

vine, — 
■When of religion's pure delights my mother loved to 

tell, 
And bade me list thy solemn voice, thou sad and 

soothing bell. 

Ye speak of glorious transports that my boyish bosom 

fired. 
When my proud country's victories your pealing 

tongue inspired ; 



■flTien, mid a nation's revelries, iny youthful shout I 
gave. 

And burii'd to swell the warrior's ranks, or fill a war- 
rior's grave. 

Once more — and call the worshipp'd dead to her lost 
lover's side. 

The beauteous one, who, living, would have been my 
wretched bride ; 

Shroud with thy mild and balmy tone the groans of 
her despair, 

When she sees her branch of promise wither'd, de- 
solate, and bare. 

No more — my soul, all overwhelm'd, no more can bear 

thee now ; 
A freezing horror chills my heart, and lightning 

burns my brow. 
To hear the sounds that blest my youth, now, like a 

funeral knell, 
Ring, to my buriod joys and hopes, a deep and last 

farewell. 



THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 



BY tHE BOSTON" BARD. 



How peaceful is the closing scene, 
WTieu virtue yields its breath ! 

How sweetly beams the smile serene 
Upon the cheek of death ! 

The Christian's hope no fear can blight, 
No pain his peace destroy ; 



He views, beyond, the realms of light, 
Of pure and boundless joy. 

Oh, who can gaze with heedless sigh 

On scenes so fair as this ! 
Who but exclaims — " Thus let me die. 

And be my end like his !" 



THE SEA. 145 

THE SEA. A Fragment. 

BY F. W. P. GREENWOOD. 

There is mystery in the sea. There is mystery in its depths. It is 
unfathomed, and perhaps unfathomable. Who can tell, who shall know, 
how near its pits run down to the central core of the world ? Who can 
tell what wells, what fountains are there, to which the fountains of the 
earth are in comparison but drops ? Who shall say whence the ocean 
derives those inexhaustible supplies of salt, which so impregnate its waters 
that all the rivers of the earth, pouring into it from the time of the Cre- 
ation, have not been able to freshen them ? What undescribed monsters, 
what unimaginable shapes may be roving in the profoundest places of 
the sea, never seeking, and perhaps from their nature, unable- to seek 
the upper waters, and expose themselves to the gaze of man! What 
glittering riches, what heaps of gold, what stores of gems, there must be 
scattered in lavish profusion on the ocean's lowest bed ! What spoils 
from all climates, what works of art from all lands have been engulfed 
by the insatiable and reckless waves ! Who shall go down to examine 
and reclaim this uncounted and idle wealth ? Who bears the keys of 
the deep ? 

And, oh ! yet more affecting to the heart and mysterious to the 
mind, what companies of human beings are locked up in that wide, 
watery, unsearchable grave of the sea ! Where are the bodies of those 
lost ones, over whom the melancholy waves alone have been chanting 
requiem ? What shrouds were wrapped round the limbs of beauty, and 
of manhood, and of placid infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor 
of that secret tomb ? Where are the bones, the relics of the brave and 
the fearful,- the good and the bad, the parent, the child, the wife, the 
husband, the brother and sister, and lover, which have been tossed, and 
scattered, and buried by the washing, wasting, wandering sea ? The 
journeying winds may sigh, as year after year they pass over their beds. 
The solitary rain-clouds may weep in darkness over the mingled remains 
which lie strewed in that unwonted cemetery. But who shall tell the 
bereaved to what spot their affections may cling ? And where shall 
human tears be shed throughout the solemn sepulchre ? It is mystery 
all! When shall it be solved ? Who shall find it out ? Who, but He 
to whom the wildest waves listen reverently, and to whom all nature 
bows ; He who shall one day speak, and be heard in the ocean's pro- 
foundest caves ; to whom the deep, even the lowest deep, shall give up 
all its dead, when the sun shall sicken, and the earth and the isles shall 
languish, and the heavens be rolled together like a scroll, and there 
shall be ''no more sea!" 



Beauty, as the flowering blossom, soon fades ; but the divine excel- 
lences of the mind, like the medicinal virtues of the plant, remain in it, 
when all those charms are withered. 
N 10 



146 riELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 



THE STAES. 



Ye little stars that glitter in the firmament — that have twinkled upon 
our forests and follies for so many centuries — that nightly come out from 
your homes to light up the sable countenance of old night — who, or 
what are ye ? Are you shining worlds, and have you bright eyes and 
broken hearts in your realms, such as shine and break here ? Move 
you on your immeasurable path thoughtless of earth and its graves, its 
greatness and its perishability ? Whence come ye, and whither do ye go ? 
fleck ye of time, or do ye move amidst the endless spaces and intermi- 
nable paths of eternity ? I see your bright faces reflected in the lake ; 
your silvery brightness resting on the leaves of the forest ; but who and 
what are ye ? and who and what is the inquirer ? The dust will cover 
him, but you will shine on. Ambition disappointed, love ruined, the gray 
of age on Mm, still will ye shine, and gild the headstone of his grave, 
when he that once lived shall be forgotten. The monarch and his scep- 
tre will crumble ; the oak grow old and fall ; the river cease to follow its 
bed ; empires wax and wane ; but still ye will shine on unruffled, serene, 
glorious, beautiful, as now. Not one ray will flee from your glittering 
brows, though it will fall on other eyes, on unborn millions, on other 
forests and lands now unknown to those who, in mockery of science, 
trace out your paths through the infinity of heaven. Bright stars, look 
not in mockery upon me! but gaze on human power, on human genius, 
and read to both the lesson of human frailty. 



PICTURE OF LIFE. 

In youth, we seem to be climbing a hill on whose top eternal sunshine 
appears to rest. How eagerly we pant to attain its summit ! But when 
we have gained it, how difi"erent is the prospect on the other side ! We 
sigh as we contemplate the dreary waste before us ; and look back with a 
wistful eye upon the flowery path we have passed, but may never more 
retrace. Life is like a portentous cloud, fraught with thunder, storm, 
and rain ; but religion, like those streaming rays of sunshine, will clothe 
it with light as with a garment, and fringe its shadowy skirts with gold. 



Woman. — The Rev. Doctor Grriffin, in his eloquent speech before the 
American Education Society, at a meeting in New York, appealed to 
that sex, who, like ministering angels, love to hover about the chambers 
of sickness — who owe so much to Christianity; and introduced the fol- 
lowing beautiful quotation : 

Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung ; 
Not she denied him with unholy tongue : 
She, when apostles shrank, could dangers brave, 
Last at the cross and earliest at the grave. 



DESCRIPTION OE THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 14T 



DESCRIPTION OF THE DAY OF JUDaMENT. 



Tereible and alarming prospect ! here the powers of eloquence lose 
all their effect; and the most elevated genius is by far too languid, life- 
less, and insipid, to describe a scene so solemn and tremendous. Who, 
though he spoke with a voice melodious as that of an angel, — though all 
the graces of celestial eloquence flowed from his lips, — could do justice 
to a subject so awful and amazing? A scene which so far transcends 
every picture which the most sublime imagination can form must cer- 
tainly baffle every effort of description j but, though it is impossible to 
convey any but a faint idea, after all our labour, let us, nevertheless, 
attempt the task, as it must be highly edifying, and leave a lasting im- 
pression on the heart susceptible of good dispositions. Imagine the day 
arrived, and all nature waiting, in silent expectation, to receive its last 
doom ; the tutelary and destroying angels to have their instructions, 
and every thing to be ready for the fatal hour ; and then, as upon a 
signal given, the trumpet sounds ', the universe groans at the terrific 
blast ; monuments burst asunder ; the tomb surrenders up the dust 
which has slept there from immemorial time ; — the illustrious and the 
obscure, the virtuous and the bad ; Christians, infidels, multitudes of 
every tribe, people and language ; all who have ever existed from Adam 
down to the present moment, — all, all arise ! How, every moment, the 
mighty concourse swells ! they pour around like gathering torrents, and 
overflow the earth, numerous as the drops of rain or stars of heaven ; 
millions crowding on millions ; stupendous tumult ! it is all inconceiva- 
ble alarm and consternation. But, who is that sublime and beauteous 
form descending from the skies, encompassed with unnumbered hosts of 
angels ? Jesus, the Son of Grod ! the Judge of man ! And is this the , 
despised Nazarene, the persecuted wanderer, who, while on earth, had 
not where to recline his weary head ? Is this the man of sorrow, who 
was barbarously crucified on Calvary, and expired between two thieves, 
loaded with disgrace, and exhausted with agonies ? Yes, it is the same ! 
But what a change ! what majesty ! what inconceivable magnificence ! 
Behold those temples, which were once so cruelly torn with thorns, now 
crowned with a diadem of glory too dazzling for mortal sense to bear ! 
Behold that hand, into which his murdering foes once put the reed in 
derision, now holding the sceptre of the universe ! Yet, amidst that 
blaze of grandeur that surrounds him, the amiable meekness, which dig- 
nified the man of sorrow, still appears, while traces of complacency and 
benevolence conspicuously mark his divine lineaments. He separates 
the promiscuous multitude, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the 
goats ; the good are ranged on his right hand, the wicked on his left : 
all, even the just themselves, wait in trembling expectation at the dread 
tribunal ; — but, how different are their sensations from those of the 
guilty ! Pious confidence, hope, and joy, arising from a consciousness 
of their integrity, and the thought of their Redeemer's atoning blood, 



148 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

are mingled with their fears. But what imagination can conceive the 
horrors of the latter ! they already hear the dire sentence thundering in 
their ears; they anticipate the doom which must soon await them ; what 
would they give now for a few of those moments, which they so im- 
prudently squandered away in gayety and sensual pleasures, to make 
their peace with Heaven ! — -the opportunity is gone for ever I And now, 
behold the eternal King of Glory turning towards the assembly on his 
right hand, with smiles that inspire inconceivable delight; — dignity, 
blended with mildness, in his brow, he addresses them with a voice that 
breathes immortal love, and invites them to the enjoyment of those beatific 
scenes which had been prepared for them before the foundation of the world. 
VVhat language can describe the effect of these reviving accents on the 
minds of the just ! what gratitude, what triumph, what ecstasy overflow 
their hearts and sparkle in their eyes ! Ten thousand brilliant convoys 
from above attend them, and angels congratulate them on their happy 
destiny, and waft them on their soaring wings to the mansions of eternal 
day. Oh, what inimitable prospects are here ! Whatever ancient poets 
have feigned of the Elysian fields; whatever the imagination has formed 
in her boldest flights, is here more than realized. But how dire a con- 
trast is exhibited in the looks of those at the left hand of their ofi"ended 
Judge, when, darting at them, from his lowering and indignant brow, 
the lightning of his vengeance, he pronounces in their ears the decisive 
and irrevocable sentence, which consigns them to the regions of endless 
iiight. They cast one farewell look on the beatific regions, and see the 
heavenly Jerusalem extending her jasper walls far and wide ; her sun, 
the glory of the Deity, shining forth with a degree of lustre which ex- 
ceeds every thing that the most brilliant fancy can conceive of the as- 
tonishing and sublime. This scene of brightness, more than stupendous, 
compared with which the splendour of ten thousand suns were dark- 
ness, but augments their anguish. These are the abodes of infinite de- 
light ; but, alas ! not for them. They deeply feel and lament their 
loss, — but, ah ! too late ! 'tis irreparable ! They depart, with inex- 
pressible reluctance, to begin their dire fate in a ruinous world. Now 
the scene begins ! all the treasures of fire in heaven and earth are open ! 
Thy final dissolution, world, is begun ! Tremendous thunders roll ! 
Piercing lightnings dart from every quarter, blaze crowding on blaze in 
rapid succession ; the mighty pillars of creation tremble ; it is all astonish- 
ment, confusion, and terror ! Dissolved by the overpowering flame, the 
solid mountains run down in streams; and, contrary to the sacred laws 
of nature, the rivers reverse their course, and hurry back to their 
fountain-head. Every promontory and island is moved out of its place. 
What a scene does the face of the earth display ! Towers, palaces, and 
temples, all sinking in the dire conflagration ! Where are now those 
mighty cities, the seats of luxury, pomp and magnificence, whose stately 
domes and aspiring turrets seemed to threaten heaven ? The melody 
of the harper and musician, and the enchanting voice of the singer are 
heard in them no more. But it is not cities only, the works of men's 
hands, but the hills, the mountains, and the rocks are melted, as was 
before the sun, and their place is nowhere found. Here stood the AlpS; 



DESCRIPTION OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 149 

a prodigious range, the load of the earth ; this huge mass is dissolved 
like a tender cloud into rain. Here stood Atlas, whose lofty top reached 
the clouds ; — all these are vanished, and swallowed up in one general 
destruction ; and heaven and earth are mingled together in one pro- 
digious ruin ! 

Thus have I endeavoured, as far as my feeble talents will permit, to 
represent to your imagination the awful appearance of the day of judg- 
ment, which will sooner or later arrive. And since it is certain, let us 
fix our affections on those eternal things which will recommend us in 
that awful crisis, and not the transient things of this world, which may 
be suddenly taken from us, or we from them ; or however long we may 
retain them, or peaceably enjoy them, we cannot keep them always. 
Let us take a view of the greatest metropolis, the most favoured by 
nature, guarded by law, and enlightened by policy : the plague in a 
week may desolate, a conflagration in a day consume, an earthquake in 
an hour swallow it up. But why recur to the bodings of fear, or the 
suggestions of fancy, for events so specifically recorded by the historian ? 
Kingdoms have been broken, cities burned, nations extirpated. Where 
are Troy, Babylon, Athens, Lacedsemon, Thebes, Jerusalem, Persepolis, 
and Palmyra? Fallen ! fallen ! Their very ruins sepulchred; some of 
their places unknown ; their glory a shadow ; their names remaining 
only a reproach to their former greatness. Palmyra, the seat of kings, 
the emporium of science, the envy of her neighbours, is no more ! 
Her wreck may form a picture, her fame may point a moral, but her 
prosperity is no longer dreaded ; there the arm of power is levelled with 
the hand of industry : the pomp of triumph ceases to dazzle, and the 
song of festivity withdraws its enchantment. Faded are the beautiful, — ■ 
withered the strong, — humbled the haughty. If a funeral inscription 
remains, the language is grown unintelligible, the hero forgotten ! He 
hoped to shine on the pinnacle of renown, but is shrouded in oblivion 
for ever ! All terrestrial glory is as a flower that fades as we praise it ; 
it is fanned by the zephyrs of the morning ; brightened by the noon- 
tide sun; and sinks with the dew of the evening. Who would write 
on water ? build on sand ? or trust for happiness to sublunary, shadowy 
ambition ? 



GrUNS. — The invention of guns is indisputably German, and was pro- 
duced in this manner : — One Barthoe Schwatis, a friar, in making chemi- 
cal experiments, mixed saltpetre and brimstone with other ingredients, 
and set them upon a fire in a crucible ; but a spark getting into it, the 
pot immediately broke with great violence and noise ; which event sur- 
prised him at first, but he repeated bis experiment, and finding the effect 
constant, set himself to work to improve it ; for which purpose he caused 
an iron pipe to be made, with a small hole to fire at, and putting in some 
of his ingredients, together with small stones, set fire to it, and found it 
answered his expectations in penetrating all before it. This happened 
about the year 1333, and was soon improved to the making of great 
ordnance, &c. 
n2 



150 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE EIGHTEOUS NEVER FORSAKEN. 

Hoot away despair ! 

Never yield to sorrow — 
The blackest sky may wear 

A sunny face to-morrow. 

It was Saturday niglit, and the widow of tlie pine cottage sat by hex 
blazing fagots with her five tattered children at her side, endeavouring, 
by listening to the artlessness of their juvenile prattle, to dissipate the 
heavy gloom that pressed upon her mind. For a year, her own feeble 
hands had provided for her helpless family, for she had no supporter; 
she thought of no friend in all the wide, unfriendly world around. But 
that mysterious Providence, the wisdom of whose ways are above human 
comprehension, had visited her with wasting sickness, and her little 
means had become exhausted. It was now, too, midwinter, and the 
snow lay heavy and deep through all the surrounding forests, while 
storms still seemed gathering in the heavens, and the driving wind roared 
amidst the bending pines, and rocked her puny mansion. 

The last herring smoked upon the hearth before her: it was the only 
article of food she possessed ; and no wonder her forlorn desolate state 
brought up in her lone bosom all the anxieties of a mother, when she 
looked upon her children ; and no wonder, forlorn as she was, if she suf- 
fered the heart-swellings of despair to rise, even though she knew that 
He whose promise is to the widow and the orphan cannot forget his word. 
Many years before, her eldest son had left his forest home to try his for- 
tune on the billowy wave — of him she had heard no note or tidings ; and 
in latter times Providence had deprived her of the companion and staff 
of her worldly pilgrimage, in the person of her husband. Yet to this 
hour she had been upborne ; she had not only been able to provide for 
her little flock, but had never lost an opportunity of ministering to the 
wants of the miserable and destitute. 

The indolent may well bear with poverty while the ability to gain 
sustenance remains. The individual who has but his own wants to sup- 
ply may suffer with fortitude the winter of want ; his affections are not 
wounded, his heart not wrung. The most desolate in populous cities 
may hope, for charity has not quite closed her hand and heart, and shut 
her eyes on misery. But the industrious mother of helpless and depend- 
ing children, far from the reach of human charity, has none of these to 
console her. And such a one was the widow of the pine cottage j but 
as she bent over the fire and took up the last scanty remnant of food to 
spread before her children, her spirits seemed to brighten up, as by some 
sudden and mysterious impulse, and Cowper's beautiful lines came 
uncalled across her mind — 

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 

But trust him for his grace ; 
Behind a frowning providence 

He hides a smiling face. 



THE RIGHTEOUS NEVER FORSAKEN. 151 

The smoked herring was scarce laid upon the table, when a gentle 
rap at the door and loud barking of a dog attracted the attention of the 
family. The children flew to open it, and a weary traveller, in tattered 
garments, and apparently indifferent health, entered and begged a lodg- 
ing and a mouthful of food. Said he, "It is now twenty-four hours since 
I tasted bread." The widow's heart bled anew, as under a fresh compli- 
cation of distresses; for her sympathies lingered not round her fireside. 
She hesitated not even now ; rest and share of all she had, she proffered 
to the stranger. "■ We shall not be forsaken," said she, '' or suffer deeper 
for an act of charity." 

The traveller drew near the board; but when he saw the scanty fare, 
he raised his eyes towards heaven with astonishment. '^ And is this all 
your store ?" said he ; " and a share of this do you offer to one you know 
not ? Then never saw I charity before ! But, madam," he continued, 
" do you not wrong your children by giving a part of your last mouthful 
to a stranger?" " Ah," said the poor widow, and the tear-drops gushed 
into her eyes as she said it, " I have a boy, a darling son, somewhere on 
the face of the wide world, unless heaven has taken him away, and I only 
act towards you as I would that others should act towards him. Grod, 
who sent manna from heaven, can provide for us as he did for Israel ; 
and how should I this night offend him, if my son should be a wanderer, 
destitute as you, and should have provided for him a home even poor as 
this, were I to turn you unrelieved away !" 

The widow ended, and the stranger, springing from his seat, clasped 
her in his arms. "Grod indeed has provided just such a home for your 
wandering son, and has given him wealth to reward the goodness of 
his benefactress. My mother ! my mother \" 

It was her long-lost son, returned to her bosom from the Indies. He 
had chosen that disguise, that he might the more completely surprise his 
family ; and never was surprise more perfect, or followed by a sweeter 
cup of joy. That humble residence in the forest was exchanged for one 
comfortable, indeed beautiful, in the valley, and the widow lived long 
with her dutiful son, in the enjoyment of worldly plenty and in the 
delightful employments of virtue; and at this day, the passer-by is 
pointed to the luxuriant willow that spreads its branches broad and 
green above her grave, while he listens to the recital of this simple and 
homely, but not altogether worthless tale. 



John Randolph. — During some period of Mr. Randolph's political 
career, he had the ill-fortune to offend a coxcombish young fellow, who 
determined to avenge himgelf by insulting the Roanoke orator on the 
first opportunity that occurred. At length the opportunity presented 
itself, when the young sprig, meeting Randolph on the pavement, walked 
up to him very impudently, and said, " I never give the way to a damned 
rascal." Mr. Randolph, immediately pulling off his hat and making the 
gentleman a low bow, replied, " Well, sir, I always do," and gave him 
the pavement. 



152 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE END OF "GREAT MEN." 

Happening to cast my eyes upon a printed page of miniature por- 
traits, I perceived that the four personages who occupied the four most 
conspicuous places, were Alexander, Hannihal, Ccesar, and Bonaparte. 
I had seen the same unnumbered times before, but never did the same 
sensations arise in my bosom, as my mind hastily glanced over their seve- 
ral histories. 

Akxander, after having climbed the dizzy heights of his ambition, and 
^ith his temples bound with chaplets dipped in the blood of countless 
nations, looked down upon a conquered world, and wept that there was 
not another world for him to conquer, set a city on fire, and died in a 
scene of debauch. 

Hannibal, after having, to the astonishment and consternation of 
Some, passed the Alps — after having put to flight the armies of this 
" mistress of the world," and stripped " three bushels" of golden rings 
from the fingers of her slaughtered knights, and made her very founda- 
tions quake— fled from his country, being hated by those who once exult- 
iugly united his name to that of their god and called him Hanni Baal — 
and died at last, by poison administered by his own hands, unlamented 
and unwept, in a foreign land. 

Co'.sar, after having conquered eight hundred cities, and dyed his gar- 
ments in the blood of one million of his foes ; after having pursued to 
death the only rival he had on earth, was miserably assassinated by those 
he considered as his nearest friends, and in that very place, the attain- 
ment of which had been his greatest ambition. 

Bonaparte, whose mandate kings and popes obeyed, after having filled 
the earth with the terror of his name — after having deluged Europe with 
tears and blood, and clothed the word in sackcloth — closed his days in 
lonely banishment, almost literally exiled from the world, yet where he 
could sometimes see his country's banner waving over the deep, but which 
would not, or could not bring him aid ! 

Thus those four men, who, from the peculiar situation of their por- 
traits, seemed to stand as the representatives of all those whom the world 
calls great — those four, who each in turn made the earth tremble to its 
very centre by their simple tread, severally died — one by intoxication, 
or, as some suppose, by poison mingled in his wine — one a suicide — one 
murdered by his friends — and one a lonely exile ! — " How are the 
mighty fallen !" 



Happiness and virtue are twins, which can never be divided ; they are 
born and flourish, or sicken and die, together. They are ofisprings of 
good sense and innocence ; and while they continue under the guidance 
of such parents, they are invulnerable to injury and incapable of decay. 



PATRIOTISM AND ELOQUENCE OF JOHN APAMS. 153 



PATRIOTISM AND ELOQUENCE OF JOHN ADAMS. 

BY -VTEBSTER. 

He possessed a bold spirit, which disregarded danger, and a sanguine 
reliance on the goodness of the cause and the virtues of the people, which 
led him to overlook all. obstacles. His character, too, had been formed 
in troubled times. He had been rocked in the early storms of contro- 
versy, and had acquired a decision and a hardihood, proportioned to the 
severity of the discipline which he had undergone. 

He not only loved the American cause devoutly, but had studied and 
understood it. He had tried his powers on the questions that it involved, 
often, and in various ways j and had brought to their consideration what- 
ever of argument or illustration the history of his own country, the his- 
tory of England, or the stores of ancient or of legal learning could fur- 
nish. Every grievance enumerated in the long catalogue of the Declara- 
tion had been the subject of his discussion and the object of his remon- 
strance and reprobation. From 1760, the colonies, the rights of the 
colonies, the liberties of the colonies, and the wrongs inflicted on the 
colonies, had engaged his constant attention ; and it has surprised those 
who have had the opportunity of observing, with what full remembrance, 
and what prompt recollection, he could refer, in his extreme old age, to 
every act of parliament afi'ecting the colonies, distinguishing and stating 
their respective titles, sections, and provisions ; and to all the colonial 
memorials, remonstrances, and petitions, with whatever else belonged to 
the intimate and exact history of the times, from that year to 1775. It 
was, in his own judgment, between these years, that the American people 
came to a full understanding and thorough knowledge of their rights, and 
to a fixed resolution of maintaining them ; and, bearing himself an active 
part in all important transactions, — the controversy with England being 
then, in effect, the business of his life, — facts, dates, and particulars made 
an impression which was never effaced. He was prepared, therefore, by 
education and discipline, as well as by natural talent and natural tem- 
perament, for the part which he was now to act. 

The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general character, and 
formed, indeed, a part of it. It was bold, manly, and energetic; and such 
the crisis required. When public bodies are to be addressed on moment- 
ous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions ex- 
cited, nothing is valuable in speech further than it is connected with high 
intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness 
are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does 
not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from far. Labour and 
learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases 
may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must 
exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, 
intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it — ■ 
they cannot reach it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the outbreaking 
of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with 



154 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, 
the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and dis- 
gust men, when their own lives and the fate of their wives, their chil- 
dren, and their country hang on the decision of the hour. Then words 
have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory con- 
temptible. Even genius feels itself rebuked and subdued, as in the pre- 
sence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent; then self-devo- 
tion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning "the deductions of 
logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking 
on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging 
the whole man onward, right onward to his object — this, this is eloquence ; 
or, rathei", it is something greater and higher than all eloquence — it is 
action, noble, sublime, godlike action. 

In July, 1776, the controversy had passed the stage of argument. An 
appeal had been made to force, and opposing armies were in the field. 
Congress then was to decide whether the tie which had so long bound 
us to the parent state was to be severed at once, and severed for ever. 
All the colonies had signified their resolution to abide by this decision, 
and the people looked for it with the most intense anxiety. And, surely, 
fellow-citizens, never, never were men called to a more important politi- 
cal deliberation. If we contemplate it from the point where they then 
stood, no question could be more full of interest : if we look at it now, 
and judge of its importance by its effects, it appears in still greater mag- 
nitude. 

Let us, then, bring before us the assembly, which was about to decide 
a question, thus big with the fate of empire. Let us open their door?, 
and look in upon their deliberations. Let us survey the anxious and 
care-worn countenances — let us hear the firm-toned voices, of this band 
of patriots. 

Hancock presides over the solemn sitting ; and one of those not yet 
prepared to pronounce for absolute independence is on the floor, and is 
urging his reasons for dissenting from the Declaration. 

It was for Mr. Adams to reply to arguments like these. We know 
his opinions, and we know his character. He would commence with his 
accustomed directness and earnestness : 

'' Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and 
my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that, in the beginning, we 
aimed not at independence. But, there's a Divinity which shapes our 
ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms ; and, blinded to 
her own interest, for our good, she has obstinately persisted, till inde- 
pendence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it 
is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration ? Is any man so 
weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England which shall leave 
either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life and 
his own honour ? Are not you, sir, who sit in that chair, is not he, our 
venerable colleague near you — are you not both already the proscribed 
and predestined objects of punishment and of vengeance ? Cut off from 
all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the 



ELOQUENCE AND PATRIOTISM OP JOHN ADAMS. 155 

power of England remains, but outlaws ? If we postpone independ- 
ence, do we mean to carry on or give up the war ? Do we mean to 
submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston port-bill and all ? Do 
we mean to submit, and consent that we, ourselves, shall be ground 
to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the 
dust ? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. Do 
we intend to violate that most solemn obligation ever entered into by 
men — that plighting, before God, of our sacred honour to Washington, 
when, putting him forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the politi- 
cal hazards of the times, we pi'omised to adhere to him in every extre- 
mity, with our fortunes and our lives ? I know there is not a man here 
who would not rather see a general conflagration sweep over the land, or 
an earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to 
the ground. For myself, having, twelve months ago, in this place, 
moved you that George Washington be appointed commander of the forces 
raised or to be raised for defence of American liberty, may my right 
hand forget her cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, 
if I hesitate or waver in the support I give him ! The war, then, must 
go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why 
put off longer the Declaration of Independence ? That measure will 
strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. The nations will 
then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowledge our- 
selves subjects, in arms against our sovereign. Nay, I maintain, that 
England herself, will sooner treat for peace with us on the footing of 
independence, than consent, by repealing her acts, to acknowledge that 
her whole conduct towards us has been a course of injustice and oppres- 
sion. Her pride will be less wounded by submitting to that course of 
things which now predestinates our independence, than by yielding the 
points in controversy to her rebellious subjects. The former she would 
regard as the result of fortune ; the latter she would feel as her own deep 
disgrace. Why then, why then, sir, do we not, as soon as possible, 
change this from a civil to a national war ? And since we must fight it 
through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the benefits of vic- 
tory, if we gain the victory ? 

" If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail. The 
cause will raise up armies ; the cause will create navies. The people, 
the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry them- 
selves, gloriously through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people 
have been found. I know the people of these colonies, and I know that 
resistance to Britisb aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, 
and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has expressed its 
willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the Declaration will 
inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody 
war for restoration of privileges, for redress of grievances, for chartered 
immunities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious ob- 
ject of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath 
of life. Read this Declaration at the head of the army : every sword 
will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow be uttered to main- 
tain it, or perish on the bed of honour. Publish it from the pulpit : re- 



156 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ligion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round 
it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls j 
proclaim it there ; let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the ene- 
my's cannon ; let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall 
on the field of Bunker Hill and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, 
and the very walls will cry out in its support. 

" Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs ; but I see, I see clearly, 
through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may 
not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may 
die ; die colonists ; die slaves ; die, it may be, igaominiously, and on 
the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that 
my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall 
be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. 
But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a coun- 
try, and that a free country. 

"But, whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that this De- 
claration loill stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but 
it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick 
gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun iu 
heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we 
are in our graves, our children will honour it. They will celebrate it with 
thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires and illuminations. On its 
annual return they will shed tears_, copious, gushing tears — not of sub- 
jection and slavery — not of agony and distress — but of exultation, of gra- 
titude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My 
judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that 
I have, and ail that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now 
ready to stake here upon it ; and I leave off, as I began, that, live or 
die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living senti- 
ment, and, by the blessing of Grod, it shall be my dying sentiment — in- 
dependence 71020 ; and independence for ever!" 



ANECDOTE OP JOHN ADAMS. 

Before our country took a stand among the nations of Europe, and 
while we were suffering by depredations on every hand, the venerable 
John Adams remarked, that the situation of the United States reminded 
him of the condition of Daniel Defoe's game-cock — who, on being in a 
stable with a number of horses, exclaimed, '^ Take care, gentlemen — 
don't let us tread upon one another 1" ■ 



Filial Duty. — There is no virtue that adds so noble a charm to the 
finest traits of beauty as that which exerts itself in watching over the 
tranquillity of an aged parent. There are no tears that can give so noble 
a lustre to the cheek of innocence as the tears of filial sorrow. 



MATERNAL HEROISM. 157 



MATEKNAL HEROISM. 

On the twenty-seventli of January, 1796, a party of Indians killed 
G-eorge Mason, on Flat Creek, about twelve miles from Knoxville, Ten- 
nessee. During the night, he heard a noise at his stable, and stepped 
out to ascertain the cause, and the Indians, coming between him and the 
door, intercepted his return. He fled, but was fired upon, and wounded. 
He reached a cave, a quarter of a mile from his house, out of which, 
already weltering in his blood, he was dragged and murdered. Having 
done this, they returned to the house, to despatch his wife and children. 
Mrs. Mason, unconscious of the fate of her husband, heard them talking 
to each other as they approached the house. At first, she was delighted 
with the hope that her neighbours, aroused by the firing, had come to 
her assistance. But, perceiving that the conversation was neither in 
English nor German, the language of her neighbours, she instantly in- 
ferred that they were savages, coming to attack the house. 

The heroine had, that very morning, learned how the double trig- 
ger of a rifle was set. Fortunately, the children were not awakened 
by the firing; and she took care not to awaken them. She shut the 
door, and barred it with benches and tables, and took down the well- 
charged rifle of her husband. She placed herself directly opposite the 
opening which would be made by forcing the door. Her husband came 
not, and she was too well aware that he was slain. She was alone, in 
the darkness. The yelling savages were without, pressing upon the 
house. She took counsel from her own magnanimity, heightened by 
affection for her children, that were sleeping unconsciously around her. 
The Indians, pushing with great violence, gradually opened the door 
sufficiently wide to attempt an entrance. The body of one was thrust 
into the opening, and just filled it. He was struggling for admittance. 
Two or three more, directly behind him, were propelling him forward. 
She set the trigger of the rifle, put the muzzle near the body of the 
foremost, and in such a direction that the ball, after passing through his 
body, would penetrate those behind. She fired. The first Indian fell. 
The nest one uttered the scream of mortal agony. This intrepid woman 
saw the policy of profound silence. She observed it. The Indians, in 
consequence, were led to believe that armed men were in the house. 
They withdrew from the house, took three horses from the stable, and 
set it on fire. It was afterwards ascertained that this high-minded widow 
had saved herself and her children from the attack of twenty-five as- 
sailants ! 



The avenues to learning of all kinds were planned and opened by 
Lord Bacon. The nature and most intimate recesses of the human mind 
were explained and unfolded by Locke ; and the frame and constitution 
of the universe by Sir Isaac Newton, in a more perfect manner than ever 
was done or attempted by human skill since the foundation of the world. 







158 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



LINES. 

ADDRESSED TO PRESIDENT WASniNGTON ON HIS BIRTH-DAY, 22(1 OF FEBRUARY, 1792. 



No peerage v.'e covet, no sceptre desire. 
No gewgaws that garnish a throne ; 

Yet Liberty loves, on her own native lyre. 
To celebrate sons of her own. 

Exulting, with reason his virtue she sings. 

And hallows the morn of his birth. 
Who shakes every throne of despotical kings, 

And gives a new lesson to earth ! 

Oh, widely diffuse it, ye winds, as ye blow ! 

Oh, waft it, ye waves that they fan ! 
For the choicest of gifts that tlie gods can bestow 

Is the blessing of Freedom to man. 

Hail, "Washington ! then that the breath of pure 
fame 

With sweeter renown doth perfume. 
Than ever embalm'd or exalted a name 

lu Macedon, Athens, or Rome. 

Say, what for mankind did the lord of his day, 

Alexander, that hero admired ? 
Let the foe, or the friend that he massacred, say. 

Or the beautiful city he fired. 



Unprejudiced freemen ! examine, with me, 
The actions that made him adored— 

Tlien mention what people the madman set free, 
Or blest, by his sceptre or sword. 

Did conquering C^sar Rome's senate obey? 

Did the legions disperse at a word ? 
Did Julius retire from a summit of sway 

That saving liis country conferr'd ? 

Did Athens— did Sparta one statesman produce 
To extinguish their feuds by his mind. 

Who taught the high import and hallow'dthe use 
Of union to Greece and mankind,? 

Ah. no ! if fall'n Greece but one patriot adept. 

One leader, like ours, had enjoy'd. 
No lover of science and freedom had wept 

For science and freedom destroy'd I 

Tlien, Washington, hail ! loJiom, the breath of pure 
fame 

With glory more sweet dotli perfume. 
Than ever embalm'd or exalted a name 

In Maeedon, Athens, or Rome ! J. B. C. 



THE ANT AND THE CRICKET. 



A SILLY young cricket, accustom'd to sing 

Through the warm, sunny months of gay summer and 

spring. 
Began to complain, when he found that at home 
His cupboard was empty, and winter was come. . 

Not a crumb to be found 

On the snow-cover'd ground ; 

Not a flower could he see ; 

Not a leaf on a tree : 
" Oh ! what will become," says the cricket, " of me ?" 

At last, by starvation and famine made bold. 

All dripping with wet, and all trembling with cold. 

Away he set off to a miserly ant, 

To see if to keep him alive he would grant — 

Him shelter from rain — 

A mouthful of grain 

He wished only to borrow ; 



He'd repay it to-morrow : 
If not, he must die of starvation and sorrow. 

Says the ant to the cricket, " I'm your servant and 

friend, 
But we ants never borrow, we ants never lend : 
But tell me, dear cricket, did you lay nothing by 
When the weather was warm ?" Quoth the cricket, 
"Not I! 

My heart was so light, 

That I sang day and night ; 

For all nature looked gay." 

" You SANG, sir, you say ? 
Go then," says the ant, " and dance winter away." 

Thus ending, he hastily lifted the wicket, 

And out of tlie door kick'd the poor little cricket. 

Folks call this a fable ; I'll warrant it true : 

Some crickets h.ave four legs, and some have but two. 



WASHINGTON'S DIRaE. 



BY THE BOSTON BARD. 



Why moans the white surge on Potomac's proud tide ? 
Why droop the green willows that grow by its side ? 
Why chant Nature's minstrels their numbers so slow. 
Imparting their songs in the whispers of wo ? 

All, why sighs the tall grass o'er Vernon's green breast? 
Why fades the rich splendour on victory's crest? 
Why is heard the deep sigh of tlie summer's bright close, 
While the lily's still blooming, and blushing the rose ? 



My country ! thy saviour,— thy Washington brave, — 
Lies cold in the earth, midst the gloom of the grave ; 
The arrow of death to his bosom hath sped ; — 
He mingles with dust — with the dust of the dead ! 

The bright bloom of valour, that blazon'd his worth, 
Lies prone upon Vernon, and hallows its earth ; 
But the boon of the blest to his spirit is given, — 
The tears of a world, and the glory of Heaven.* 



* Motto on medals struck at the time of his decease; "He in ctony— the world in tears." 



PKESIDENTIAL INAUaURATION. 159 



PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION. 

G-EORGE Washington, having brought the war of the Revolution to 
an honourable close, retired to private life. On the adoption of the fede- 
ral constitution, he was twice unanimously elected to preside as chief- 
magistrate ; when, at the end of eight years, he voluntarily resigned, and 
returned to his estate on Mount Vernon. John Adams, a memorable 
patriot of the Revolution, was chosen by the suffrage of the people to 
succeed him as President of the United States ; and his inauguration 
took place in the hall of Congress, south-east corner of Sixth and Chest- 
nut streets, Philadelphia, 4th March, 1797. At an early hour, the 
lobbies and gallery were well " wedged" with spectators. The floor of 
the house was occupied by the members, ' ladies, and other privileged 
persons, as on all similar occasions, who silently and anxiously waited 
the coming scene. On that day, Thomas Jefferson was to appear as Vice- 
President, and George Washington a private citizen. The first novelty 
that presented itself was the entrance of the Spanish minister, (the 
Marquis Yrugo,) in full diplomatic costume. He was of middle size, 
of round person, florid complexion, and hair powdered like a snowball — 
dark striped silk coat, lined with satin, white waistcoat, black silk breeches, 
white silk stockings, shoes and buckles — he had by his side an elegant 
hilted small sword, and his " chapeau," tipped with white feathers, under 
his arm. Thus decorated, he crossed the floor of the hall with the most 
easy nonchalance possible, and an occasional side toss of the head, (to 
him habitual,) to his appointed place. He was viewed by the audience 
for a short time in curious silence. He had scarcely adjusted himself in 
his chair, when the attention of the audiebce-was roused by the word 
'' Washington," near the door of the entrance. The word flew like 
lightning through the assembly, and the subsequent varied shouts of 
enthusiasm produced immediately such a sound as 

When loud surges lash the sounding shore. 

It was an unexpected and instantaneous expression of " simultaneous" 
feeling, which made the hall tremble. Occasionally, the word, " Washing- 
tion ! Washington !" might be heard like guns in a storm. He entered 
in the midst, and crossed the floor at " quick step," as if eager to escape 
notice, and seated himself quickly on his chair, near " the Marquis 
Yrugo," who rose up at his entrance, as if startled by the uncommon 
scene. He was dressed similarly to all the full-length portraits of him, 
hair full-powdered, with black silk rose and bag pendent behind, as then 
was usual for elderly gentlemen of the " old school." But on those por- 
traits, one who had never seen Washington might look in vain for that 
benign expression of countenance possessed by him, and only sufiiciently 
perceptible in the lithographic bust of Rembrandt Peale to cause ''a feel- 
ing, " as Judge Peters, in his certificate to the painter, expresses it. The 
burst at the entrance had now subsided, when the word "Jefferson!" 
at the entrance-door, again electrified the audience into another explo- 



160 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

sion of feeling, similar to the first, but abated in force and energy. He 
entered, dressed in a long blue frock-coat, single-breasted, and buttoned 
down to the waist — light, sandy hair, very slightly powdered, and cued 
with black ribbon a long way down his back ; tall, of benign aspect, 
and straight as an arrow ; he bent not, but, with an erect gait, moved 
leisurely to his seat, near Washington, and sat down. Silence again 
ensued. 

Presently, an increased bustle near the door of the entrance, and the 
words, "President!" ''President Adams I" again produced an explosion 
of feeling similar to those that had preceded, but again diminished, hi/ 
repetition, in its force and energy. He was dressed in a suit of light drab 
cloth, his hair well powdered, with rose and bag, like that of Washing- 
ton. He passed slowly on, bowing on each side, till he reached the 
" speaker's chair," on which he sat down. Again a deep silence pre- 
vailed, in the midst of which he rose, and bowing round to the audience 
three times, varying his position each time — he then read his inaugural 
address, in the course of which he alluded to, and, at the same time, 
bowed to his predecessor, which was returned from Washington, who, with 
the members of Congress, were all standing. When he had finished, he 
sat down ; after a short pause, he rose up, and, bowing round as before, he 
descended from the chair, and passed out with acclamation. Washington. 
and Jefferson remained, standing together, and the bulk of the audience 
watching their movements in cautious silence. Presently, with a grace- • 
ful motion of the hand, Washington invited the Vice-President, Jefferson, 
to pass on before him, which was declined by Mr. Jefferson. After a 
pause, an invitation to proceed was repeated by Washington, when the 
Vice-President passed on towards the door, and Vt^ashington after him. 
A rush for the street now commenced, and the nest view of Washington, 
the " beheld of all beholders," was on the north side of Chestnut street, 
going down, with the crowd after him, and Timothy Pickering on his 
right, to " Francis's Hotel," on a visit of congratulation to the President 
elect. On his arrival at the hotel, in Fourth, above Chestnut, now In- 
dian Queen, they passed in, and the door was closely "wedged in" with 
people desirous of beholding, to the last, the person of Vv^ashington, now 
passing away from them, and to be seen by them no more for ever. 
When the door closed, another explosion of feeling from the assembled 
throng produced a sound like thunder. The effect was such that the 
door of the hotel again opened, and again Washington, (to them) " first 
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," stood 
uncovered before them. A deep silence ensued. He then bowed three 
times to the spectators, varying his position each time, which was re- 
turned with a shout by the crowd, and a clapping of hands. Having 
done so, he slowly retired, seemingly in much agitation, within the door, 
and the grateful assembly gradually disappeared. 



Let the first action of manhood be to govern your passions, for he 
who knows how to govern himself always becomes a favourite with 
society. 



THE UNION. 161 



THE UNION. 

The following excellent remarks in favour of preserving tlie American 
Union are extracts from various speeches and letters which the late ex- 
citing times, caused by a discussion of the Slavery question and its con- 
comitants, the Texas Boundary and the admission of California, have 
produced : 

By Hon. Sam Houston, of Texas, in the United States Senate, 
February 8, 1850. 

But I call upon the friends of the Union, from every quarter, to come 
forward like men, and sacrifice their differences upon the common altar 
of their country's good, and to form a bulwark around the Constitution 
that cannot be shaken. It will require manly effort, sir ; and they must 
expect to meet with prejudices growing up around them, that will assail 
them from every quarter. They must stand firm to the Union, regard- 
less of all personal consequences. Time alone can recompense them for 
their sacrifice and their labours ; for devotion to country can never be 
forgotten, when it is ofi'ered freely, and without expectation of a reward. 
The incense of self-sacrifice, when thus offered on the altar of their 
country, will be acceptable to the people. I have no doubt that this 
question might be easily adjusted, if gentlemen would encourage such 
disposition and feeling as doubtless actuate a large portion, if not all, 
of this body. If they would come up to the work, I have no doubt 
six senators here could be designated, without reference to party, (you 
may, if you please, disregard the section of country from which they 
come,) who would act as a committee of conference, and sit down to- 
gether as wayfaring men, and produce satisfactory reconciliation, thereby 
diffusing universal peace, and calming the agitated waves that are lashing 
at the base of our capitol, and speak comfort and solace to millions of 
freemen. Do not the American people love this Union ? Are they 
not devoted to it ? Is not every reminiscence of the past associated 
with its glories, and are they not calculated to inspire prayers for its 
prosperity and perpetuity ? If this were not the case, you might think 
lightly of our noble confederacy ; but so it is — it stands connected with 
every fibre of the national heart, and interwoven with every glorions 
recollection of the past, which affection or reverence can inspire in the 
minds of the American people. It is not, Mr. President, that twenty- 
three millions of souls alone are involved in the perpetuity of this 
Union — it is not that every consideration of happiness connected with 
country, appertained to it ; but it is because it is the great moral, social, 
and political lever that has moved, is moving, and will continue to move 
the world. Look abroad at foreign nations, and behold the influence of 
our example upon them — not ours, for I feel a sense of humiliation 
when I contrast the efforts of any man now living with the illustrious 
achievements of the departed sages and heroes who performed this 
mighty work. 

o2 11 



162 FIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

I deny the power of all the ultras on earth to dissolve this Union 
or to rend it in twain. I trust that the wisdom of those who have an 
established and solid interest in the country will prompt them to rise 
and rally to its rescue, if it is in danger; and that they will redeem it 
from all peril, and transmit it to their posterity as a sacred bequest to 
them, as we have received it from our forefathers. 

Sir, the Union is not dissolved ; and I apprehend there will be less 
danger of it when the people are awakened to the slightest apprehen- 
sion of real. danger. But, has apprehension reached the homes of the 
people ? Have you struck at the remotest verge of this great Union ? 
Have you roused the farming — the substantial — the solid population ? 
Have they been awakened, or is the feeling imagined to exist from the 
newspaper publications of the day, or from the proceedings of leading 
politicians, who are preparing to mount this hobby, which they expect 
will carry them so speedily to the goal of popularity ? Are you to de- 
duce the opinions of the American people from these circumstances ? 
Consider for a moment, what a large portion of the people are at home, 
unexcited aad unagitated on the subject. Do you think, that if there 
be a real danger of disunion, they will not be awakened from their 
lethargy ? Do you think they will not feel themselves called upon to 
act by the apprehension of such danger ? Then, sir, you will have a 
sincere expression, when you carry it to the hearths of the farmer, the 
mechanic, who has every comfort of life around him, acquired by industry, 
or inherited from patriotic ancestry, under the broad eegis of this Union, and 
tell him, you have now to encounter the hazard of civil broils — of a war of 
desolation — the worst of all wars; a war, not of race — a war, not of 
language, or of tongue, or of religion, but a war of brothers — the most 
sanguinary of mortal strife. Look at Hungary. Consider the civil 
war that has raged between Austria and Hungary — -one nation ; there 
it has raged with such violence that boys of the age of nine or ten years 
have been taken as conscripts, torn from their homes and the embraces 
of their mothers and sisters, and those mothers and sisters herded to- 
gether, like cattle in a pound, guarded by the bayonets of the soldiery, 
to keep them from rushing and rescuing their children from the ranks. 
Then, too, the brutal soldiery, pursuing their fell purpose of vengeance, 
despoil women of all that is sacred, tear from the bosoms of mothers 
their infant children, and pin them to the posts of the doors with swords, 
and bayonets, and pikes. Can you contemplate, sir, with calmness these 
scenes — are they not in the perspective, and consequent upon disunion ? 
And who more able than yourself [Mr. King, the Senator from Ala- 
bama: — then in the chair,] to portray the evil of disunion ? Who . dare 
to step forward and interpose his influence, his intelligence, his powerful 
and expanded patriotism, to arrest the progress of this portentous evil ? 

But, Mr. President, it is not alone the North and the South — not 
alone these two sections of this vast Union, who are interested. Where 
are the Middle States ? Where is the old Keystone? Will she here- 
after look indifferently upon a subject so momentous and so deeply im- 
portant to her ? Will she disregard it ? Will she not interpose her 
mighty influence to arrest it ? Where is the new and manly West;, with 



THE UNION. ■ 163 

all the vigour of youth, with all the sagacity, wisdom, and strength of 
manhood, and with all the valour that can inspire the human heart — 
where is the West to remain, and what its attitude when disunion takes 
place ? What will the North gain by disunion ? Do not the produc- 
tions of the South contribute to the employment of their moneyed capital ? 
Their carrying-trade of the productions of the South is a profitable one ; 
and their labour and their ingenuity are highly rewarded by the return 
of our own raw material when fabricated, and the sale of it in the 
South. What then has the North to gain, looking at their pecuniary 
interest alone, by pushing the South to the fearful extremity of stand- 
ing upon their reserved rights ? Sir, if the North does not refrain, if 
they persist in their threatened aggressions upon the South, and inva- 
sions upon their rights established under the Constitution, the sin must 
lie at their own door, and their own threshold will be defiled with the 
consequences of injustice to their brethren. And I ask of them now 
calmly to consider upon it, and to reflect that they have gone far enough, 
that the Soiith has been sufficiently excited, and that expressions too 
passionate for reason have been indulged in on both sides. * * * * 
The passage of the Proviso would be an indignity ; and if the North 
choose to take this firebrand and thrust it into the bosom of Southern 
society, then they may reproach themselves, and not the South, for the 
conflagration which they have kindled. The South will be then acting 
on the defensive and standing on their reserved rights. Sir, it is a peril- 
ous experiment, and one which ought not to be made. 

I regret exceedingly ever to allude to what I have done. But on 
this occasion I feel that if it even be regarded as boasting, I will say 
that when I have been charged with being a deserter from the interests 
of the South, and courting favour with the North, I pity the beguile- 
ment which has dictated the suggestion. What ! forget the South ? If 
I am of the South, can I not recollect the North ? What is our coun- 
try ? It is a nation composed of parts. East and West, South and 
North. It is an entirety. There are no fractions in it. It is a unit, 
and I trust it will so remain. But I have been charged with being an 
alien — an alien — a "deserter." 

Permit me — and I say it because it is history not embellished, it is 
truth — when I gave the first evidence of manhood, it was in earnest de- 
votion to the South. Sir, when a stripling I enlisted, a private soldier, 
in the ranks of my countrymen ; I took my life in one hand — in my 
right hand I grasped the weapons of war. We marched in quest of the 
Indian in his lurking-place; we met the savage in his war-path; we 
kindled our fires far in the land of our enemy ; we sat by them until 
morning, when the battle came ; we met our enemies, they either fled 
or fell. There I ofiered the richest libation of my youth, the blood of 
my early manhood, to conse(yate the soil to freedom and the Union. 
This was in the centre of the South. Now, war is no more heard on 
our borders — the mountains speak peace, and joy is in all our valleys. 
The warrior is careless — his arms lie idle — he can now point to them 
and speak to his sons of his valiant deeds. In what I have done, if I 
have contributed my mite to human freedom, I will let history tell; and 



164 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

say to what extent I have done it ; or, if I have failed in the offices of 
humanity, let it be visited upon me. With my gallant associates, I 
have struck manacles from the limbs of a captive chieftain, and restored 
him, with his vanquished comrades, to their nation and their homes, 
without ransom. I ask no recompense. Was not all this done for the 
South ? And am I to be questioned of having a Southern heart, when 
that heart is large enough, I trust, to embrace the whole Union, if not 
the whole world ? 

And, Mr. President, I must say that I am sorry I cannot offer the 
prayers of the righteous that my petition might be heard. But I be- 
seech those whose piety will permit them reverentially to petition, that 
they will pray for this Union, and ask that He who buildeth up and 
pulleth down nations will, in mercy, preserve and unite us. For a 
nation divided against itself cannot stand. I wish, if this Union must 
be dissolved, that its ruins may be the monument of my grave and 
the graves of my family. I wish no epitaph to be written to tell that 
I survived the ruin of this glorious Union. 



Bi/ Hon. Daniel Webster, of Massaclmsetts, in the United States 
Senate, March 7, 1860. 

Mr. President, I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, 
nor as a Northern man, but as an American, and a member of the 
Senate of the United States. It is fortunate that there is a Senate of 
the United States; a body, not yet moved from its propriety, not lost 
to a just sense of its own dignity and its own high responsibilities, and 
a body to which the country looks, with confidence, for wise, moderate, 
patriotic, and healing counsels. It is not to be denied that we live in 
the midst of strong agitations, and are surrounded by very considerable 
dangers to our institutions and government. The imprisoned winds are 
let loose. The East, the West, the North, and the stormy South, all 
combine to throw the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its billows to 
the skies, and disclose its profoundest depths. I do not affect to regard 
myself, Mr. President, as holding, or as fit to hold, the helm in this 
combat with the political elements ; but I have a duty to perform, and I 
mean to perform it with fidelity, not without a sense of surrounding 
dangers, but not without hope. I have a part to act, not for my own 
security or safety — for I am looking out for no fragment upon which to 
float away from the wreck, if wreck there must be — but for the good of 
the whole, and the preservation of all ; and there is that which will 
keep me to my duty during this struggle, whether the sun and the stars 
shall appear, or shall not appear, for many days. I speak to-day for 
the preservation of the Union. ''Hear me for my cause. '^ I speak, to- 
day, out of a solicitous and anxious heartj for the restoration to the 
country of that quiet and harmony which make the blessings of this 
Union so rich, and so dear to us all. These are the topics that I pro- 
pose to myself to discuss ; these are the motives, and the sole motives, 
that influence me in the wish to communicate my opinions to the Senate 



THE UNION. 165 

and the country ; and if I can do any thing, however little, for the pro- 
motion of these ends, I shall have accomplished all that I expect. 



Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard, from every mem- 
ber on this floor, declarations of opinion that this Union should never 
be dissolved, than the declaration of opinion that, in any case, under 
the pressure of any circumstances, such a dissolution was possible. I 
hear with pain, and anguish, and distress, the word secession, especially 
when it falls from the lips of those who are eminently patriotic, and 
known to the country, and known all over the world, for their political 
services. Secession ! Peaceable secession ! Sir, yoar eyes and mine 
are never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this 
vast country without convulsion ! The breaking up of the fountains of 
the great deep without ruffling the surface ! Who is so foolish, I beg 
everybody's pardon, as to expect to see any such thing ? Sir, he who 
sees these States, now revolving in harmony around a common centre, 
and expects to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion, 
may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their 
spheres, and jostle against each other in the realms of space, without 
causing the crush of the universe. There can be no such thing as a 
peaceable secession. Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility. Is 
the great Constitution under which we live here, covering this whole 
country, is it to be thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows on 
the mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun ? disappear 
almost unobserved, and die off ? No, sir ! No, sir ! I will not state 
what might produce the disruption of the States ; but, sir, I see it as 
plainly as I see the sun in heaven — I see that disruption must produce 
such a war as I will not describe, in its twofold character. 

Peaceable secession ! — peaceable secession ! The concurrent agree- 
ment of all the members of this great republic to separate ! A volun- 
tary separation, vv'ith alimony on one side and on the other. Why, 
what would be the result ? Where is the line to be drawn ? What 
States are to secede ? What is to remain American ? What am I to 
be ? An American no longer ? Where is the flag of the republic to 
remain ? Where is the eagle still to tower ? or is he to cower and 
shrink and fall to the ground ? Why, sir, our ancestors — our fathers 
and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living among us with 
prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach us ; and our children and 
our grandchildren would cry out shame upon us, if we, of this genera- 
tion, should dishonour these ensigns of the power of the government 
and the harmony of the Union, which is every day felt among us with 
so much joy and gratitude. What is to become of the army? What 
is to become of the navy ? What is to become of the public lands ? 
How is each of the thirty States to defend itself? I know, although 
the idea has not been stated distinctly, there is to be a Southern Con- 
federacy. I do not mean, when I allude to this statement, that any one 
seriously contem^plates such a state of things. I do not mean to say 
that it is true, but I have heard it suggested elsewhere, that that idea 



166 FIELDS'S SCKAP-EOOK. 

has originated a design to separate. I am sorry, sir, that it has ever 
been thought of, talked of, or dreamed of, in the wildest flights of hu- 
man imagination. But the idea must be of a separation, including the 
slave States upon one, side, and the free States on the other. Sir, there 
is not— I may express myself too strongly, perhaps, but some things, 
'some moral things, are almost as impossible as other natural or physical 
things; and I hold the idea of a separation of these States, those that 
are free to form one government and those that are slaveholding to form 
another, as a moral impossibility. We could not separate the States by 
any such line, if we were to draw it. We could not sit down here, to- 
day, and draw a line of separation that would satisfy any five men in 
the country. There are natural causes that would keep and tie us to- 
gether, and there are social and domestic relations which we could not 
break if we would, and which we should not if we could. Sir, nobody 
can look over the face of the country at the present moment, nobody 
can see where its population is the most dense and growing, without 
being ready to admit, and compelled to admit, that ere long America 
will be in the valley of the Mississippi. 

Well, now, sir, I beg to inquire what the wildest enthusiast has to say 
on the possibility of cutting off that river and leaving free States at its 
source, and its branches, and slave States down near its mouth ? Pray, 
sir, pray, sir, let me say to the people of this country that these things 
are worthy of their pondering and of their consideration. Here, sir, 
are five millions of freemen in the free States north of the river Ohio : 
can anybody suppose that this population can be severed by a line that 
divides them from the territory of a foreign and an alien government, 
down somewhere, the Lord knows where, upon the lower banks of the 
Mississippi ? What would become of Missouri ? Will she join the ar- 
rondissement of the slave States ? Shall the man from the Yellow Stone 
and the Platte be connected, in the new republic, with the man who 
lives on the southern extremity of the Cape of Florida ? Sir, I am 
ashamed to pursue this line of remark. I dislike it, I have an utter 
disgust for it. I would rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, war, 
pestilence, and famine, than to hear gentlemen talk of secession. To 
break up ! to break up this great government, to dismember this great 
country, to astonish Europe with an act of folly such as Europe for two 
centuries has never beheld in any government ! No, sir; no, sir! 
There willbe no secession. G-entlemen are not serious when they talk 
of secession. 

Sir, I hear there is to be a Convention held at Nashville. I am 
bound to believe that if worthy gentlemen meet at Nashville in conven- 
tion, their object will be to adopt counsels conciliatory, to advise the 
South to forbearance and moderation, and to advise the North to for- 
bearance and moderation ; and to inculcate principles of brotherly love 
and affection, and attachment to the Constitution of the country as it 
now is. I believe, if the Convention meet at all, it will be for this pur- 
pose ; for certainly, if they meet for any purpose hostile to the Union, 
they have been singularly inappropriate in their selection of a place. I 
remember, sir, that when the treaty was concluded between France and 



THE UNION. 167 

England, at the peace of Amiens, a stern old Englishman and an orator, 
who disliked the terms of the peace as ignominious to England, said in 
the House of Commons, that if King William could know the terms 
of that treaty, he would turn in his coffin. Let me commend this saying 
of Mr. Windham, in all its emphasis and all its force, to any persons 
who shall meet at Nashville for the purpose of concerting measures for 
the overthrow of the Union, over the bones of Andrew Jackson. 

And now, Mr. President, I draw these observations to a close. I 
have spoken freely, and I meant to do so. I have sought to make no 
display ; I have sought to enliven the occasion by no animated discus- 
sion, nor have I attempted any train of elaborate argument. I have 
wished only to speak my sentiments, fully and at large, being desirous 
once, and for all, to let the Senate know, and to let the country know, 
the opinions and sentiments which I entertain on all these subjects. 
These opinions are not likely to be suddenly changed. If there be any 
future service that I can render to the country, consistently with these 
sentiments and opinions, I shall cheerfully render it. If there be not, 
I shall still be glad to have had an opportunity to disburden my con- 
science, from the bottom of my heart, and to make known every political 
sentiment that therein exists. 

And now, Mr. President, instead of speaking of the possibility or 
utility of secession, instead of dwelling in these caverns of darkness, 
instead of groping with those ideas, so full of all that is horrid or hor- 
rible, let us come out into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air 
of Liberty and Union ; let us cherish those hopes which belong to us ; 
let us devote ourselves to those great objects that are fit for our consi- 
deration and our action ; let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude 
and the importance of the duties that devolve upon us ; let our compre- 
hension be as broad as the country for which we act, our aspirations as 
high as its certain destiny ; let us not be pigmies in a case that calls 
for men. Never did there devolve on any generation of men higher 
trusts than now' devolve upon us, for the preservation of this Constitu- 
tion, and the harmony and peace of all who are destined to live under it. 
Let us make our generation one of the strongest, and the brightest link 
in that golden chain, which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the 
people of all the States to this Constitution, for ages to come. It is a 
great, popular, constitutional government, guarded by law and by judi- 
cature, and defended by the whole affections of the people. No mo- 
narchical throne presses these States together ; no iron chain of despotic 
power encircles them ; they live and stand upon a government popular 
in its form, representative in its character, founded upon principles of 
equality, and calculated, we hope, to last for ever. In all its history, it 
has been beneficent ; it has trodden down no man's liberty; it has crush- 
ed no State. Its daily respiration is liberty and patriotism; its yet 
youthful veins are full of enterprise, courage, and honourable love of 
glory and renown. Large before, the country has now, by recent events, 
become vastly larger. This republic now extends, with a vast breadth, 
across the whole continent. The two great seas of the world wash the 



168 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

one and tlie other shore. We realize, on a mighty scale, the beautiful 
description of the ornamental edging of the buckler of Achilles— 

Now the broad shield complete, the artist crown'd 
With his last band, and pour'd the ocean round ; 
In living silver seem'd the waves to roll. 
And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole. 



By Hon. Daniel Webster, in the United States Senate, JnTy 17, 1850. 

Mr. President, it has always seemed to me to be a grateful reflection 
that, however short and transient may be the lives of individuals, states 
may be permanent. The great corporations that embrace the govern- 
ment of mankind, protect their liberties, and secure their happiness, may 
have something of perpetuity, and, as I might say, of immortality. For 
my part, sir, I gratify myself by contemplating what in the future will 
be the condition of that generous State which has done me the honour 
to keep me in the councils of the country for so many years. I see 
nothing about her in prospect, less than that which encircles her now. 
I feel that when I, and all those that now hear me, shall have gone to 
our last home, and afterwards, when mould may have gathered upon our 
memories, as it will have done upon our tombs, that State, so early to 
take her part in the great contest of the Revolution, will stand, as she 
has and does now stand, like that column which, near her capitol, per- 
petuates the memory of the first great battle of the Revolution, firm, 
erect, and immovable. I believe, sir, that if commotion shall shake the 
country, there will be one rock for ever, as solid as the gTanite of her hills, 
for the Union to repose upon. I believe that if disasters arise, bringing 
clouds which shall obscure the ensign now over her, and over us, there 
will be one star that will but burn the brighter amid the darkness of 
that night ; and I believe that, if in the remotest ages — I trust they 
will be infinitely remote — an occasion shall occur when the sternest 
duties of patriotism are demanded and to be performed, Massachusetts 
will imitate her own example ; and that, as at the breaking out of the Re- 
volution, she was the first to offer the outpouring of all her blood and all 
her treasure in the struggle for liberty, so she will be hereafter ready, 
when the emergency arises, to repeat and renew that ofi"er, with a thousand 
times as many warm hearts, and a thousand times as many strong hands. 
And now, Mr. President, to return at last to the principal and im- 
portant question before us : What are we to do ? How are we to bring 
this emergent and pressing question to an issue and an end ? Here have 
we been seven and a half months, disputing about points which, in my 
judgment, are of no practical importance to one or the other part of the 
country. Are we to dwell for ever upon a single topic, a single idea ? 
Are we to forget all the purposes for which governments are instituted, . 
and continue everlastingly to dispute about that which is of no essential 
consequence ? I think, sir, the country calls upon us loudly and impera- 
tively to settle this question. I think that the whole world is looking to 
see whether this great popular government can get through such a crisis.' 



THE UNIOS-. 169 

Y\^e are the observed of all observei'S. It is not to be disputed or doubted, 
that the ej-es of all Christendom are upon us. We have stood through 
many trials. Can we stand through this, which takes so much the cha- 
racter of a sectional centroversy ? Can we stand that ? There is no 
inquiring man in all Europe who does not ask himself that question every 
day, when he reads the intelligence of the morning. Can this country, 
with one set of interests at the South, and another set of interests at the 
North, these interests supposed, but falsely supposed, to be at variance, can 
this people see, what is so evident to the whole world besides, that this 
Union is their main hope and greatest benefit, and that their interests 
are entirely compatible ? Can they see, and will they feel, that their 
prosperity, their respectability among the nations of the earth, and their 
happiness at home, depend upon the maintenance of their Union and 
their Constitution ? That is the question. I agree that local divisions 
are apt to overturn the understandings of men, and to excite a belligerent 
feeling between section and section. It is natural, in times of irritation, 
for one part of the country to say, If you do that, I will do this, and so 
get up a feeling of hostility and defiance. Then comes belligerent legis- 
lation, and then an appeal to arms. The question is, whether we have 
the true patriotism, the Americanism, necessary to carry us through such 
a trial. The whole world is looking towards us with extreme anxiety. 
For myself, I propose, sir, to abide by the principles and the purposes 
which I have avowed. I shall stand by the Union, and by all who stand 
by it. I shall do justice to the whole countrj^, according to the best of 
my ability, in all I say, and act for the good of the whole country in all 
I do. I mean to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other plat- 
form. I shall know but one country. The ends I aim at shall be my 
country's, my Grod's, and truth's. I was born an American; I live an 
American ; I shall die an American ; and I intend to perform the duties 
incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean 
to do this, with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are 
personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good 
or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which 
may befall a great country in a crisis like this, and in the midst of great 
transactions which concern that country's fate ? Let the consequence 
be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no 
man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in defence of the liberties 
and constitution of his country. 



Bi/ Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, in the United States Senate, 
jMarch 25, 1850. 

Mr. President, this is an unwelcome topic. I have been hurried into 
it by the announcement of doctrines so contrary to all that I learned 
in youth, to all the opinions of my manhood, and so contrary to the sen- 
timents which I would transmit to those who shall come after me, that 
I could not forbear seizing this occasion to protest against them. Mr. 
.President, there are two classes of the friends of Union — the one who 



170 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

see dangers which threaten it, and give warning of their existence that 
they may be averted— and another who will acknowledge the existence 
of no danger capable of destroying the Union, and thus lull those who 
conduct the government into a false, and, it may be, a fatal security. 
It will be for posterity to determine who were the best friends of the 
Union, I will preserve, if I can, the public peace and the union of the 
States ; but higher than the public peace, higher than the Union even, 
I prize the indispensable rights and liberties of my native State. Short 
of these last, I would make any sacrifice to save the former. I am a 
friend of peace — my heart is naturally averse to strife. There is no one 
.who' contemplates with more satisfaction than I do the spectacle of 
peace — peace which reigns in sunshine, almost unbroken by a shadow, 
throughout the boundaries of this mighty confederacy. But when I see 
so little appreciation of the true magnitude of the dangers which threaten 
us, I cannot but feel anxious and apprehensive. It is not my purpose 
to alarm, but it is my duty to warn those with whom I am counselling, 
that there is danger ; and although I hope for a safe exit, I do not very 
well see my way out of it. 

This, sir, is a question which I take no pleasure in agitating — I would 
avoid it, if I could do so consistently with duty. I never speak upon it, 
if I can help it; but avoid it I cannot — it meets me wherever I go: in 
whatever business I undertake, it presents itself as the subject that will 
be uppermost. It is like the plague of darkness that tested on the land 
of Egypt. It pervades the world without — it fills the home within. It 
veils the political horizon from the rising to the setting sun ; it obscures 
the cheerful light of the domestic fire ; it darkens faces which have never 
kn-own before the shadow of an abiding sorrow; and if it does not fill 
the American mind with apprehension, it disturbs and distracts it. It is 
the word on every lip, and the thought in every mind. I see nothing 
better to do than to discuss the question fully. It is here — let us deal 
with it at once. Let us see in what respects we can agree, in what we 
cannot concur; and if, unhappily, we cannot adjust the controversy our- 
selves, then we must rrtake up the issue, argue it fully, and present it 
fairly, and as calmly as we can, to the American people. I shall await 
their verdict with much of hope, if not with entire confidence. The 
question will go then to every fireside ; it will be discussed by every head 
of a household as a matter of the highest political interest to the family ; 
and the verdict which will then be rendered will be more momentous in its 
consequences to mankind, than any which a people has ever pronounced. 
Should it be just and temperate — should it be of a character to settle 
all differences and compose strife — I, and all who witness it, will feel 
that the problem of man's capacity for self-government has been fully 
solved by the American mind, and, what is better, the American heart — 
a mind which has proved itself capable of pursuing truth, and a heart 
which has shown that it was animated by feelings of justice and the 
kindly emotions of fraternal aifection. 

Mr. President, the senator from Massachusetts says he will not pause 
to consider upon what fragment of the wreck he is to float away. Sir, 
I wish he may always have the whole ship to sustain him, and that the 



THE UNION. ITl 

stately tnll, with whicli he is so identified in fame, may neither dissolve 
into fragments nor float away in parcels. And yet, sir, I feel more 
anxious, more apprehensive for its safety, than he seems to do, because, 
perhaps, I am in a situation more exposed to danger. But he should 
recollect that things have changed, and are changing, since the crew first 
were shipped. We have lost sight of the old landmark. If there be a 
voice to command, we hear it not — a hand to steer, we see it not. Dis- 
trust and suspicion are fast taking the place of the generous confidence 
which used to animate the crew; a portion of them have been told that 
they were to have no common interest in the voyage — to share in nothing 
but its labours, its perils, and difficulties ; and this, too, when the night 
and the storm are gathering around, and an unknown sea is before us. 
Is there no danger of driving them to despair ? What if they should 
refuse to touch a rope, to hand a yard, to furl a sail ? Will you threaten, 
them with the pains and penalties of the mutiny act ? What if you do — 
if you should apply force — if you should overwhelm and master them ? 
How long afterward before the winds and the waves would master you ? 
No, sir; it is not thus that the ship is to be saved. With united hearts, 
with united hands, with united counsels, we can and ought to save the 
ship, the crew, and every hope and promise with which it is freighted. 
We may save mankind, whose gaze is upon us, the pain of beholding 
the spectacle of so vast a wreck, upon each fragment of which some 
portion of the crew would indeed float away, but each upon its separate 
course, and to a destiny all unknown. 

We can and ought to settle this contest upon the principles of justice 
and of the Constitution — not, sir, by any halfway compromise, which 
would cover up and conceal the difficulty, without removing it. Such 
patchwork would be illusory, and invite false hopes, whose disappoint- 
ment would increase the bitterness of the dispute when it was again re- 
newed. The one party or the other might find some supposed ground 
for charges of bad faith, and thus new elements of strife might " em- 
broil the fray." On the contrary, a just settlement is a long settlement; 
it is good to-day, and as good to-morrow, or a hundred years hence. 
Is it too much, then, Mr. President, for the South to ask, that this go- 
vernment should not be converted, either directly or indirectly, into an 
instrument of warfare on her peace and her property ? Is it too much 
for her to ask to be permitted to take her seat at the board of family 
council, without being received with taunts, insults, and denunciation ? 
Is it extravagant in her to expect that the provisions of the Constitution 
inserted for her protection, and because it was the condition upon which 
alone the Union could be formed, should be executed, not according to 
their letter merely, but in spirit and in truth ? And last, but not least, 
does she seek more than the Constitution guaranties, when she asks that 
the property, of every description, of each and all the citizens of the 
United States, should be protected by the Greneral Government, where- 
ever its jurisdiction is paramount, and its flag floats as the sole emblem 
of human authority ? Can this last be refused, except by a denial of 
the right of property ? Now, sir, what is there in all this to offend the 
well-settled opinions, or even the plausible prejudices, of any large por- 



172 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

tion of our fellow-citizens? We do not ask them to establisli a new 
state of things, or to create any thing which did not exist before ; but 
to recognise facts and to acknowledge obligations created, not by our- 
selves, but by our fathers, when they formed this Union, to which we 
are all attached. We ask for peace and justice ; is this too much for one 
man- — for one brother — to expect of another ? Can the Southern States 
exist as the confederated equals of the Northern with less than this ? Mr. 
President, I am deeply anxious to settle the exciting questions peaceably 
and harmoniously, not only now, but for ever, if any satisfactory settle- 
ment could be made so permanent. For this purpose, I am willing to 
sacrifice feeling, pride of opinion — if I have it — interests even, if not of 
too important a character — any thing, in short, which I can do consist- 
ently with the honour and safety of my constituents. But there is one 
thing I never will do : 1 will not sacrifice those rights which are necessary 
to protect the liberties of my native State, be the consequences of that 
refusal what they may. But, sir, I exhaust myself, and weary the 
Senate. I will pursue the subject no farther. 



By Hon. D. S. Kaufman, of Texas, in the House of Representatives, 
June 10, 1850. 

I appeal to you, then, my fellow-members, to step forward and dis- 
charge fearlessly your duty to your country. Not only are the people 
of the United States anxiously awaiting our action here, but the whole 
civilized world is looking on with the deepest and most intense interest. 
Not only does the G-enius of Libert}'-, from her elevated place over your 
speaker's chair, silently point to us, with scroll in hand, and solemnly 
warn us into the path of duty ; but over the main entrance to this hall 
we see represented Clio, the Muse of History, with pen in hand, mounted 
upon the chariot of Time, taking note of the events which daily tran- 
spire here. She seems to be averting her face from the page of the 
present ! Oh, may it not be ominous of events, unworthy of record, 
about to transpire in this sacred hall of freedom ! But may our action 
be such that she will be enabled, out of the events of this session, to 
fill the brightest page of human history — that which records the triumph 
of a free people over themselves, their passions, and their prejudices. 
How solemn and impressive the lesson intended to be taught lis by this 
instructive and admonitory symbol ! Our acts and conduct here will 
not pass unnoticed. They will be transmitted to distant generations ; 
and ages after we have passed to ^'the house prepared for ail living," 
will our memories be blessed or cursed in proportion as our acts have 
blessed or cursed our country. May Heaven enlighten our judgments, 
purify our motives, and ''deliver us from evil;" and may each one of 
us so act as to transmit to his children, and to posterity, the rich legacy 
of a pure and a patriot name ! 



THE UNION. 173 

By Hon. James McDowell, of Yirginia, in the House of Representatives. 

It is said, sir, that, at some dark hour of our revolutionary contest, 
when army after army had been lost ; when, dispirited, beaten, wretched, 
the heart of the boldest and faithfulest died within them, and all, for 
an instant, seemed conquered, except the unconquerable soul of our 
father-chief, it is said, that at that moment, rising above all the auguries ' 
around him, and buoyed up by the inspiration of his immortal work for 
all the trials it could bring, he roused anew the sunken spirits of his 
associates by this confident and daring declaration : — " Strip me (said 
he) of the dejected and suffering remnant of my army — take from me 
all that I have left — cleave but a banner, give me but the means to plant 
it upon the mountains of West Augusta, and I will yet draw around 
me the men who will lift up their bleeding country from the dust, and 
set her free/' Give to me, who am a son and representative here of 
that West Augusta, give to me, as a banner, the propitious measure I 
have endeavoured to support, help me to plant it upon this mountain- 
top of our national power, and the land of Washington, undivided and 
unbroken^ will be our land, and the land of our children's children, for 
ever. So help me to do this at this hour, and generations hence, some 
future representative of the South, standing where I stand, in this same 
honoured hall, and in the midst of our legitimate successors, will bless 
and praise and thank God, that he too can say of them, as I of you, 
and of all around me, These^ these, are my brethren, and this, this, oh ! 
this too, is my country ! 



By Hon. J. H. Savage, of Tennessee, in the House of Representatives. 

Sir, I trust I am not more fearful than other men. If danger comes, 
I expect to be as ready to meet it as I am now anxious to avoid it. I 
pray to God that I may never again witness the wild work of human 
destruction, called " glorious war." I hope that eternal peace may bless 
the world. With me, 

The drying up a single tear hath more 

Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore. 



But for the remarks of the gentlemen who have preceded me, I should 
have thought it no part of my duty to allude to the great question of 
slavery, now agitating this country from centre to circumference, and 
threatening a destiny so dark and disastrous. Sir, I have read some- 
where of a fabled magnet, far in the deep blue sea, whose fatal influence 
withdrew the nails from every vessel that came within its sphere, leaving 
the proud ship and its prouder masters an inglorious wreck amid the 
solitudes of the ocean. Who cannot see that while this question is un- 
settled, each hour will be extracted those fastenings that bind this 
glorious confederacy together, until our proud ship is left a shattered, 
broken, disunited thing, to sink beneath the surge of time; as others 
p2 



174 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

that have gone before, with no voice to record our memory, but that 
which proclaims our folly ? 

* * * * But I want no such issue. I love the people of the 
North. I have always felt that I would peril all that is dear to my 
native State to protect from lawless violence Massachusetts' humblest 
citizen or most barren rock. Those of them who know me, know that 
I do. I have never imagined, nor can I now imagine, how I could live 
out of the Union. I have ever hoped that our ship of state^ self-poised 
upon the billows, would gather the tempests in her sails, and fly with 
lightning speed to the haven of transcendent national glory, amid the 
plaudits of an admiring world. And for this, I shall still be ready to 
make every sacrifice, except my honour and my right to be free and 
equal on every foot of land beneath the '' stars and stripes." 



By Hon. Henry Clay, at a puhlic meeting in Baltimore. 

There is one point, however, on which I feel at liberty to express my- 
self fully — I allude to the Union of the States. This question is, in my 
view, paramount to every other. There is none of sufficient importance 
to be considered in connection with it. Under all circumstances, in any 
and every event, I shall labour for the perpetuity of our Union. Let 
the storm come from what quarter it may, I am prepared to meet it, 
and to stand by our glorious confederacy. [Here Mr. Clay arose to his 
full height, and became exceedingly animated, while his eye flashed 
with fire, and communicating his enthusiasm to the entire audience, 
they were deeply moved, and gave vent to their feelings in deafening 
applause.] Mr. Clay continued, — I look upon the dissolution of the 
Union as productive of every evil that could possibly befall us as a people. 
Should so awful an event take place, even those who dare to meditate it 
would reap no possible good, but would share the general ruin. In that 
sad event, our country would need no historian. The history of Greece 
and of other ancient republics would be her history. Entangling fo- 
reign alliances and internal commotions of every character would speedily 
follow. Some daring military chieftain would arise, and play, once 
more, the part of a Philip or an Alexander. We should be involved in 
wars, wars, wars — wars most bloody, unrelenting, and devastating, would 
be entailed upon us. But I trust in Grod, gentlemen, that such a, time 
may never arrive, and I assure you that my untiring efforts shall be 
directed against it. 



By Hon. William H. Stewart, in the House of Representatives of 
the State of Texas. 

I cannot subscribe to the doctrine of disunion, though it should be 
that of the leading politicians of the South. I am opposed to looking 
forward and anticipating such an event. The time for separation has not 
yet come, and I hope never will ; and I cannot but think that such doc- 



THE UNIOX. 175 

trines somewliat evince a want of true patriotism. Wlien I look at the 
advent of a dissolution, when I ponder well the bitter consequences, and, 
in the future, gaze upon the shattered fi^agments of this mighty nation, I 
feel like shedding tears. When that sad event comes, I should desire 
to hide myself in some secluded cave, in the lonely mountain side, 
where I could not witness my country's desolation or get rumour of her 
distracted state of commotion, civil wars, ruin, destruction, and final 
annihilation. None can imagine fully the wretched consequences. It ■ 
seems to me that universal night would envelop the earth and liberty 
be buried amidst the wreck. The South could derive no benefit from it; 
the North nothing ; bats would cluster about our untenanted dwellings, 
owls hoot over our deserted villages, and wolves resume their hideous 
yells in our vacated farm-yards. 

Gentlemen talk of the glorious march of our country, and all feel 
proud of her pre-eminent position among the nations of the earth. 
Why, then, shall we abandon the Union, under which we have attained 
this power and greatness, and national superiority ? Abandon it for 
what ? For an experiment ? Was not the experiment sufficiently tried 
by our forefathers in the old confederation ? Were they not driven by 
imperious necessity to the formation of the Constitution which now 
governs the American people ? If the Union be dissolved, we shall not 
find ourselves in any better situation than they were in. And what, sir, 
are we taught by the history of those times ? The old confederation 
wholly failed to secure the ends its founders had in view. Has each 
State the elements or the power essential to a separate nationality ? We 
should make ourselves the laughing-stock of the advocates of monarchical 
government; we would soon become disaffected among ourselves; civil 
war would ensue between the several States, and all would be over- 
whelmed in one total, common ruin. 

I think we should strangle this feeling of disunion in its birth, and 
we should not pass any resolution that has a squinting that way — let 
us wait till the proper time shall come ; and I trust in Grod it may never 
come. I for one cannot subscribe to any doctrine or action that has a 
tendency to hurry on a crisis which I so deeply deplore. Instead of 
fanning the flame of discontent, I am for pouring oil upon the troubled 
waters. 



By Hon. Joshua F. Johnson, in the House of Representatives of the 
State of Texas, on the Santa Fe question. 

Sir, nothing less than an imperious necessity shall ever force me to 
vote for desperate measures. It shall be the last resort, when every 
means of reconciliation have been exhausted, and every hope of an 
honourable compromise is lost. 

The situation of my State, her interest in the perpetuity of the Union, 
demand it. Sir, Texas is just now relieving herself of the many diffi- 
culties and embarrassments that have so long oppressed and cramped the 
energies of her people. For almost a quarter of a century, she has 



176 FIELDS'S SCHAP-BOOK. 

been exposed to all the dangers, endured all the privationS; and submit- 
ted to all the inconveniences incident to frontier life. 

As a pioneer of the wilderness, her life has been one of self-sacrifice, 
long-suffering and peculiar hardships. She has had not only to subdue 
the wilderness, but tame the savage and beat back the Mexican. It is 
the proud boast of the Texan, that his State only, of all the States, 
unaided and alone, achieved her independence. During her short life, 
Texas has suffered more than every State in the Union together has, for 
the last fifty years. Then sir, will you, just as Texas is emerging from 
her past difficulties and entering upon a happy and prosperous career, 
in full view of that bright and glorious destiny that so surely awaits her, 
with a folly but little short of madness, blast and destroy for ever all 
the long-cherished hopes of years of patient toil and long-suffering? 
Such in all human probability will be the effect of the passage of this 
bill. G-entlemen may endeavour, but in vain, to persuade themselves 
that this is a dark picture drawn by an over-heated imagination. But, 
sir, I tell you now, that though you have the power to raise the storm 
and lash the political tempest into fury, it will not be still at your bid- 
ding : a greater power than yours, and I fear than upon this earth, must 
hush the convulsed elements to repose. 

Sir, if an armed force of Texans ever reach the territory of Santa 
Fe, nothing but divine interposition can prevent the collision so much 
to be deplored. Texans will fight : place but shame and disgrace in 
their rear, and they can see no danger in the cannon's mouth. Bragg's 
flying artillery will have no terrors for them ; and, sir, I tell you, the 
bitter taunts, the ill-timed jibes, and insolent criminations of the regular 
army towards the Texans, will be the prelude to the darkest and blood- 
iest day ever recorded in the book of time. Nor will Texas alone be 
the victim of this fatal and ill-timed policy. The first gun fired upon 
the plains of Santa Fe sounds the death-knell of this Union. At the 
signal, the North and South will break into opposing ranks : the sad 
and gloomy spectacle will be presented to the world, of brother arrayed 
against brother, friend against friend, countryman against countryman, 
awaiting the signal to commence the work of ruin and death ; and all 
for what ? Is it for the glory and pride of Texas ? No sir. Result 
as it will, end as it may, no good can result to Texas. If we meet with 
resistance, we ruin Texas and sacrifice the Union. If the American 
army, at our first approach, ignobly and disgracefully flee before us, the 
glory of the American confederacy is tarnished, the charm of the Union 
is broken ; the spell that knit and bound the souls of twenty millions 
of freemen together will be loosed for ever. Had not Texas rather 
sacrifice much, than bring down such a fearful calamity upon the 
American people ? 

By Hon. William Fields, in the Rouse of Representatives of the State 
of Texas, on the same subject. 

But I am not willing to vote for a war, a civil war, if we may so term 
it, for it is to be a war between Texas and the United States, while there 



THE UNION. 17T 

is any bope of peace. No, sir, not while there is any glimmering of 
peace, even in the distance, will I vote for a bill calculated to plunge 
the country into civil commotion — to drench it in blood — to desolate the 
land, and blast the hopes of the friends of freedom throughout the 
world. I am told that war is not mentioned in the bill before the 
House. I know it. The word "war" is not used in the bill; yet it is a 
tear measure. You can call it nothing else. Does it not propose to 
raise an army, and to send it to Santa Fe ? And for what ? Merely to 
come back again ? No, sir — to fight; that is the object, of course. And 
whom are we to fight ? Why, not only New Mexico, but the United 
States ; for the President says he will order the forces of the United 
States to oppose us. And shall we rush into this civil war hastily, and 
without mature reflection? I hope not. It is a serious aifair, and we 
should reflect much before we act. It is no small matter to array our- 
selves against the G-eneral Government. 

Whei-e, and when, and how is this conflict to end, if the ball is once 
put in motion ? Sir, upon this Legislature rests a vast responsibility. 
In our hands are the destinies of the country. Upon our action on this 
momentous question, a republic, as it were, is to be lost or won. If a 
blow be struck and blood flow, dissolution must follow. 

All admit this, and yet gentlemen are not willing to give us time to 
hear the proposition for compromise. They would hazard all upon a 
single throw of the die. They would demolish the best model of re- 
publican government ever reared by man. Our experiment, so full of 
interest to us, and to the generations to follow, and upon which the world 
has looked with so much solicitude, will then prove a failure. And what 
will we have gained ? Santa Fe will be lost ! — the Union will be dis- 
solved ! ! — and Texas will be millions of dollars deeper in debt ! ! ! 



By Hon. James C. Wilson, in the House of Represejitailves of the State 
of Texas, on the same subject. 

Mr. Speaker, I do not often make a personal allusion, but I must say 
that I feel my position on this question to be very peculiar. I have felt 
fettered in my action on every question in which the possibility of dis- 
union was used as an argument ; chained down to the earth, as it were, 
by the peculiar circumstances by which I stand surrounded. 

Yesterday, I had occasion to offer a few remarks, and hardly had I 
taken my seat when I heard the remark from more than one gentleman, 
who addressed the House, " I love the Union too much to pursue a course 
which will bring Texas in conflict with the troops of the G-eneral Go- 
vernment. I was born beneath the stars and stripes." But the gentle- 
man from Smith (Mr. Lott) was more pointed in his remarks. After 
assuring the House of his own devotion to the Union, and assuming that 
the course advocated by myself and others might result in dissolution, 
he speaks of me by name, as avowing an attachment for the Union, and 
yet reeommeuding preparation for action, which, should it become ne- 

12 



1T8 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

cessary to adopt, might place the Union in jeopardy ; and he significantly 
asserts : " /was born in the South, and under the stars and stripes, and 
I claim to have at least as much love for the Union as the gentleman 
from Wharton can lay claim to." It may be that the gentleman had 
no reference to my peculiar situation. T am willing to believe that he 
has a sufficient sense of propriety, and a sufficient amount of right feel- 
ing to pi-event his intentionally doing so. But if he did not so intend 
it, it only shows 

That many a shaft at random sent, 
And many a word at random spoken, 
Finds mark the archer little meant. 

To have been born in the sunny South and nurtured under the stars 
and stripes, is a proud boast. 

Such has not been my fortune. I am a native of a foreign land ; but 
my constituents, who know me better than the gentleman, are not afraid 
to trust me, even in these times of trouble ; and, sir, as their represen- 
tative, I stand here with as many privileges as the most favoured. 

True, sir, that by the accident of birth, I cannot claim the title of 
American. I became an American citizen /rom choice, and not by 
accident. 

I feel myself, sir, to be, upon this floor, every inch American, and 
that every pulsation of my heart, every drop in my veins is devoted to 
the sustenance of American prosperity and American greatness. 

A devotion to the American Union fills my heart, as true and as in- 
telligent as that which warms the breast of any man who hears me. I 
love America, because I can appreciate her mission and her glorious des- 
tiny. I love her institutions, because I understand them. 

Sir, it is with reluctance that I speak thus of myself; but the remarks 
to which I have alluded were painful to me in a degree which none can 
understand who have not experienced. It is not the first time that persons 
exulting in the mere accident of birth have made me feel that I was 
not born an American. 

But I have one consolation. My attachment to republican institu- 
tions and to the American name is not to be proved to-day : I have not 
said it in the pleasant times of peace, and when the avowal cost me 
nothing. 

Seven years ago — more than seven years ago, I was a prisoner in a 
loathsome cell, loaded with irons, and suffering starvation.* The present 
was misery, the future was gloom, and from that situation I could have 
delivered myself by one word. I could have come forth to meet the 
warm, cheerful, smiling face of day, and to mingle with civilized men 
of my own nation and speaking my own tongue. I could have changed 
the bitterness of captivity and chains for the comforts and enjoyments 
of freedom, and yet I declined. Thrice the representative of my native 

■•■■ Mr. Wilson was one of the Mier prisoners, and was for a long time incarcerated in 
the dungeons of Perote. He is an Englishman, and was offered his liberty by the 
British minister in Mexico, if he would claim British protection ; but he refused, and 
remained with his unfortunate coDirades. California's wealth could not corrupt such 
a heart. — Editor. 



THE UNION. 179 

laud offered me freedom, if I would claim the rights of a British subject 
and the protection of the British crown — and thrice I declined. Prefer- 
ring rather to suffer and to starve with the brethren of my adoption, 
than to owe my liberation to the influence of the sovereign from whom 
I had withdrawn my allegiance. To-day I am rewarded. [Here the 
applause so shook the house, that the reporter could not note the remarks 
of the speaker.] 

Mr. Speaker, it is the proudest boast of my life, to be an intelligent 
freeman, to understand American institutions and to love them. But I 
love them for their purity, for their equality ; when they are perverted 
from their purity, I will fight against the perversion ; when in their 
name oppression is resorted to, I will fight against the oppression. This 
is not striving against, but for the Union. 

^^ sK ^ ^ ^ ^ >K 

But, sir, whatever else I may be, I can claim to be a Texan ; from my 
boyhood, Texas has been my home. She is bound to my heart by a thou- 
sand ties. Here my mind and character were formed. Here my lot is 
cast, and here will be the home of my children. All my wishes, all my 
hopes, all my interests, all my feelings are Texan. Upon the soil of 
Texas dwell all who are dear to me on earth : in her bosom are the graves 
of my dead. When she is threatened with disgrace, when a mightier 
power would crush her, when the hand that should protect is stretched 
forth to dismember her, it stirs up feelings in my breast, strong, sir, too 
strong for utterance. It wakes emotions in my heart, which, perliaps, 
are best confined there. I have no desire that they should sleep. I glory 
in them. 



j5y Hon. Jerry Clemens, of Alabama, at a])ublic meeting in 
Huntsville. 

Restless men — men of blind prejudices and headstrong passions — will 
assuredly say and do things calculated to disturb the harmony of the 
Bepublic. It may even be that in some States "excitement may carry 
them to the verge of secession. I hope Alabama may not be found 
among the number. We have a deep stake in the preservation of the 
Union, and that must, indeed, be a serious grievance which can justify 
secession. Not quite twelve months since, I saw for the first time the 
tomb of Washington. Clouds and darkness then hung over the land. 
Disunion was a familiar word. Most of us had lost confidence in the 
friendly disposition of our Northern brethren, and were looking forward 
to a violent termination of the impending controvers3^ I gazed upon 
the spot where the remains of that great and good man repose, and asked 
to whom will he belong when we are divided ? It was not for the South 
alone he fought; not for the South alone he spurned a kingly diadem. 
The South, indeed, gave him to the nation, but he gave to the whole land 
liberty and independence, and all alike are the heirs of his glory. The 
pilgrim from Bunker Hill, as well as he from Camden, has a right to 
visit that sacred spot, and kneel and worship there. His awful shade 



180 FIELDS'S SCRAP-EOOK. 

would rise to rebuke the section that dared to appropriate him to itself. 
We cannot divide him, nor can we divide the trophies gathered on the 
bloody fields of the Revolution. Many a soiled banner, which once 
waved above a haughty foe, is now to be seen at the capital of the Re- 
public, and the American who can look upon them and not feel his heart 
beat quicker and his step grow prouder and firmer, is unworthy of the 
name. All these were jointly won, and belong to us in common, in 
our own times, we have created for our children a bond of amity, which 
I fervently pray may endure for ever. On more than one glorious field, 
New England and South Carolina together faced the cannon's mouth, 
and mingled their blood in a common pool. From the moutli of the 
Rio G-rande to Buena Vista every hamlet is vocal with the story of Ame- 
rican prowess. From Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, all along the 
route the dauntless Spaniard trod — upon the very fields of his fame — 
American valour and American science have eclipsed even the wild 
romance of " The Conquest," and Hernando Cortez has yielded the laurel 
crown to Winfield Scott. It was not by the North or the South that 
this bright page of our story was written. Side by side they braved 
the pestilence ; side by side they won victory after victory, and annihi- 
lated in one caiupaign the military power of a mighty nation. 

No one ever thought of asking there whether the eyes of his comrade 
had first opened to the light of day in Maine or Louisiana. No one in- 
quired from what section came the hand that stanched his bleeding 
wounds or held the cup to his fevered lips. It was a brother's hand, no 
matter whence it come, and asked no recompense but a brother's love. 
If there was nothing else to bind this Union together, these are ties that 
no wise and good man would willingly sever. 



Extract from an address of Hon. Lewis Cass, of Middgan, hefore the 
Kalamazoo Agricidtural Society, Octoher 11, 1850. 

My fellow-citizens, I come to you from a scene far different from this ; 
from a scene where there was neither eye nor heart for the peaceful and 
prosperous labourers of agriculture ; but where great interests were com- 
mitted to doubtful and excited legislators, and where there was too much 
reason to fear, at one time, that we should sow the wind, while you wotda 
reap the whirlwind. And such would have been the harvest of cala- 
mity, had not a mighty voice been heard, when the tempest raged the 
loudest, and speaking louder than the tempest, said, "Peace, be still," — 
and all was still. But this voice did not issue from the seat of your 
General G-overnment; it came there, borne upon the four winds of hea- 
ven ; from the east and from the west, from the north and from the 
south ; from the American people, and almost the whole people, who, 
feeling the peril of their country, rose up in their power, and rebuking 
their servants, commanded them, promptly, and by wise legislation, to 
restore peace and harmony to the republic — and it was done. The great 
cause of freedom and self-government, not for us alone, but for the whole 
human race, has been tried and gained. 



THE UNION. 181 

Many an eye watched us in Europe. Many a heart throbbed with 
hope or fear. With hope or fear, as he who watched us believed that 
man was made to govern himself, or to be governed by hereditary rulers, 
knowing that for long years to come, for ages, indeed it may be, the 
great experiment was on trial here, and if it failed by our intestine divi- 
sions, it failed for mankind, till again renewed by time and blood and 
oppression. G-reat was the danger, and great is the success. Blessed 
be the Grod of our fathers and our own God, we are yet one country, one 
people, one government. And so may we continue, till human institutions 
shall have fulfilled their functions, and have been succeeded by the 
advent of that period, foretold by prophecy and foreseen by faith, when 
" the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." 

[The following eloquent passage, rife with the spirit of wisdom and 
patriotism, occurs in a letter addressed by General Cass to the Secretary 
of the recent Union Democratic meeting in New York, in reply to one 
requesting his presence on the occasion.] 

Let him tvlio idll, calculate the value of this Union, if he can. I 
spurn the useless effort. Its value is inthepastj in the present, and in the 
future ; in its promiseSj its performances, and its liopes ; in all it has done, 
and is doing, and is destined yet, I trust, to do. Its value is in the heart 
of every true American. It has made ours the most prosperous country on 
the face of the earth ; given us a greater measure of national freedom than 
any other people ever enjoyed; placed us among the powerful nations of 
the world, with nothing to fear but our own follies and crimes and the 
judgment of God; it has spread an intelligent, a happy, a contented, and a 
virtuous population over our hills, and valleys, and prairies, from the shores 
of the Atlantic almost to the base of the Rocky Mountains, which the hardy 
pioneer is now ascending ; and it has already brought us the great po- 
litical offering, to be laid upon the altar of our common country, of a 
constitution from a free people, who have established their home upon 
the vei*y shores that look out upon China and Japan. 

All this our Union has done; but if left to go on, its work has but just 
begun. We cannot explore the future ; it is best we should not. But 
we have reason to hope, with proper humility, indeed, that, if not struck 
with judicial blindness, the career of this great republic will be as glorious 
in itself as it will be happy for its people and encouraging to the lovers 
of freedom throughout the world. The cause of human liberty depends 
on us. If lost here hy intestine divisions, it is lost everyiohere. 

We have not only our own fate in our hands, but the great question 
of the power of self-government is committed to our Teeeping. If we can- 
not govern ourselves, who can ? If this constitution falls, the next that 
will govern us may be the sword. My ardent prayer is, that I may 
never live to see that day. 

Q 



182 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE BABE OF THE ALAMO. 

The beautiful remarks which follow are extracted from speeches deli- 
vered in the House of Representatives of the State of Texas, on a bill pro- 
posing a donation to the daughter of Almiram Dickinson, one of the 
martyrs who fell at the Alamo, in the beginning of the Texan revolution. 

By Hon. Guy M. Bryan. 

History will never record a nobler deed — a more daring stand — a 
purer self-sacrificing self-devotion to the interests and liberties of their 
adopted country, than the fight and fall of Travis, Bowie, Crockett, and 
their gallant compatriots. One hundred and fifty or sixty men, under 
Travis, were arrayed against thousands of Mexicans, under Santa Anna, 
the then President of Mexico, who has so often styled himself the second 
Napoleon : and heroically did they wield the battle blade, till the last 
man of that glorious band was made to measure his length upon his 
mother earth. No quarter was asked or given — and not a soul was left 
to tell the tale but the wife of Dickinson, with her infant daughter. 
How terribly heart-sickening must have been a sight of that conflict — 
the massacre of that unaided, devoted few, to this distressed woman — 
this unwilling witness of such cruel slaughter. Dickinson was murdered 
in bed, sick, hj the side of his wife. 

Such are some of the scenes, the calamities, the woful consequences 
of, as the Mexicans then pretended to consider it, civil war. It equalled, 
in atrocity, the wanton cruelty of the Austrians towards the Hungarians, 
in the late struggle for liberty of that gallant but unfortunate people. 
Perhaps the eye of Almighty G-od never witnessed a more terrific struggle, 
hilt to hilt, than 

On tliat dreadful night, 
When Travis had to fight 
The myrmidons of power and the opiiosers of right. 

I intended, Mr. Speaker, to remain silent on this occasion, but silence 
now would be a reproach, when to speak is but a duty. No one has 
raised a voice in behalf of this orphan child — several have spoken against 
her claim. I rise, sir, an advocate of no common cause. Liberty was 
its foundation — heroism and martyrdom have consecrated it. I speak 
for the orphan cliild of the Alamo ! No orphan children of fallen pa- 
triots can send up a similar petition to this House, — none other can say, 
1 am the child of the Alamo ! 

Well do I recollect the consternation which was spread throughout 
the land, when the sad tidings reached our ears that the Alamo had 
fallen ! It was here that a gallant few, '* the bravest of the brave," 
threw themselves between the enemy and the settlements, determined 
" never to surrender nor retreat." They redeemed their pledge to Texas 
with the forfeit of their lives — they fell the chosen sacrifice to Texan 
freedom. Texas, unapprized of the approach of the invader, was sleeping 
in fancied security, when the big gun of the Alamo first told that the 



THE BABE OF THE ALAMO. 183 

Attila of the South was near. Infuriated by the resistance of Travis 
and his noble band, he halted his whole army beneath the walls, and 
rolled wave after wave and surge after surge of his mighty host against 
these stern battlements of freedom. In vain he strove — the flag of 
liberty, the Lone St^^r of Texas, still streamed out upon the breeze, and 
floated proudly from the outer wall. Maddened, he pitched his tents and 
reared his batteries, and, finally, stormed and took a black and ruined 
mass, the blood-stained walls of the Alamo. The noble, the martyred 
spirits of every one of its gallant defenders had already taken their flight 
to another fortress, not made with hands. 

This detention of the enemy enabled Texas to recuperate her energies, 
to prepare for that struggle, in which freedom was the prize, and slavery 
the forfeit. It enabled her to assemble upon the Colorado that gallant 
band -****** which eventually triumphed 
upon the plains of San Jacinto, and rolled back the tide of war upon 
the ruthless invader. 

But for this stand at the Alamo, Texas would have been desolated to 
the banks of the Sabine. Then, sir, in view of these facts, I ask of this 
House to vote the pittance prayed for. To whom ? To the only living 
witness (save her mother) of this awfal tragedy — '' the bloodiest picture 
in the book of time," and the bravest act that that ever swelled the 
annals of any country. 

Grrant this boon ! she claims it as the christened child of the Alamo, 
baptized in the blood of a Travis, a Bowie, a Crockett, and a Bonham ! 

It would be a shame to Texas to turn her away. Grive her what she 
asks, in order that she may be educated, and become a worthy child of 
the State, and take that position in society to which she is entitled by 
the illustrious name of her martyred father — made illustrious because 
he fell in the Alamo ! 



By Hon. J. C. Wilson. 

But who is this child, sir, and whence her particular claim upon the 
public coffers ? It has been attempted on this floor to show that there is 
no distinction between this case and hundreds of others in the State of 
Texas. Is this true, sir? What other child is there, even in Texas, 
whose eyes but opened into consciousness to look upon such a scene of 
havoc and of blood? What other can urge such claims upon Texas? 
She is not only the orphan child of one of the bravest patriots who em- 
braced the cause of infant Texas, the cause of struggling freedom against 
proud oppression — the orphan of one of that gallant, devoted, martyred 
band, who perished to a man, in defence of the Alamo; but, more than 
this, she is the last remaining vestige of all the American name and 
race — the sole survivor, except the mother upon whose breast she hung, 
of all who looked forth upon the rising of that sun whose setting light 
shone upon the battered wall and the bloody dust of the Alamo. 

She remains unto us as a trophy and a badge of an hour the blackest, 
yet the brightest, in the whole calendar of time — of an event which, 



184 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

shining out in the hallowed radiance of its glory, through all the dark 
and lurid clouds that surrounded it, marks the brightest spot upon the 
broad page of history. She remains unto us, sir, as a living link con- 
necting the present and the future with the past. 

The student of GJ-recian history in every age, in every land, has felt 
his bosom glow with a noble fire, while reading of Leonidas and the three 
hundred who fell with him at Thermopylse; but when the Alamo fell, a 
nobler than Leonidas, a more devoted band than Sparta ever saw, sank 
among its ruins. 

They shed their blood for us — they poured out their lives as water for 
the liberties of Texas; and they have left to us of that bloody, yet glo- 
rious conflict, one sole memento — one frail, perishable keepsake — the 
child whose petition for assistance is now before us. 

Shall we, in the spirit of cold-hearted parsimony, turn her away from 
our doors? Shall we say to her. Though your father served the State in 
life, though he fell amid the ranks of those men whose names history 
shall delight to chronicle and nations to honour — though you alone, of all 
the children of Texas, witnessed that direful scene, whose bare contempla- 
tion makes the stout heart quail — though the credit and the honour of 
Texas are concerned in taking care of your childhood and watching 
over your youth, in providing for your happiness and respectability — 
though you, the hahe of the Alamo, will be an object of interest to all 
who may visit our State in after years, when the pen of the historian 
shall have shown your connection with the early glories and sufferings 
of our now happy land ; yet, for all this, we will suffer you to grow up in 
uncultured wildness, in baneful ignorance, perchance in the foetid atmo- 
sphere of vice, rather than to make this little appropriation to enable you 
to render yourself capable of occupying that respectable, nay, enviable 
position in life, to which you are in a peculiar degree entitled, by all the 
strange and thrilling circumstances of your situation. I trust, such an 
act will never mar and disfigure the history of Texas. Sure am I, that 
by my vote it never shall. 

It is related of Napoleon, that on an occasion when an ofiicer whom 
he loved was wounded, and, from the narrowness of the defile in which 
the conflict raged, was in imminent danger of being crushed to death by 
the feet of contending friends and foes, while the emperor looked on 
with deep anxiety for his fate, a female, an humble follower of the army, 
with a babe on one arm, pressed through the melee to the wounded man, 
and, passing her other arm around him, conveyed him to a place of com- 
parative safety, near the emperor; but just as she turned away from 
the object of her benevolent and daring undertaking, a ball struck her 
in the breast, and she fell dead at the feet of Napoleon. The emperor, 
taking the motherless babe in his arms, called a grenadier, saying, '^ Bear 
this child to the rear, guard it carefully, and see that it is well attended, 
for henceforth it is the child of the Empire." I say, Mr. Speaker, the 
babe of the Alamo is the child of the State, and we cannot treat her 
application with neglect, without entailing a lasting disgrace upon 
Texas. 



THE DESTINY OF THIS REPUBLIC. 185 

By Hon. E. H. Winfield. 

Placed as I was in 1836, I cannot forego the satisfaction of saying 
a few words in explanation of the vote I am about to give. Upon 
the fall of the Alamo, I was selected by General Houston, in company, 
I think, with Colonel Hockley, or Judge Franklin, to search for the 
mother and infant daughter, the sole survivors of that deadly struggle. 
We were ordered not to relax our exertions until we should find them 
and conduct them into camp. The satisfaction I enjoyed in the execu- 
tion of this order it is beyond the power of language to express. . When 
we met them, and heard the widowed mother relate the story of that glo- 
rious but dreadful day, I looked upon them with feelings allied to vene- 
ration and awe. Plucked as if by a miracle from the hands of a ruthless 
and infuriated soldiery, I viewed them as sacred and holy. Since that 
day, I have never lost sight of them. Time and again have I begged 
the mother in vain to give me that child, that my wife might raise it 
with my own daughter. 

I am surprised, and it is a matter of great astonishment to me, that 
men whose faces I have known for fifteen years in Texas, could coldly 
record their votes, refusing a little pittance to this orphan child. 

It has been remarked that Thermopylae had her messenger of defeat. 
The Alamo had none. Where was the man, who could bear arms, 
to convey the mournful intelligence ? All, all had fallen. Not a soul 
escaped that massacre. The eye of God alone could have protected this 
child. I have heard many of the Mexicans, not only women and chil- 
dren, but ofl&cers in the Mexican army, express the most unbounded 
astonishment at her preservation amid all the horrors of that day, 
ascribing it to a special interposition of Heaven. 



WHAT IS TO BE THE DESTINY OF THIS REPUBLIC ? 

BY JUDGE STORY. 

When we reflect on what has been and what is, how is it possible not 
to feel a profound sense of the responsibilities of this republic to all fu- 
ture ages ! What vast motives press upon us for lofty efforts ! What 
brilliant prospects invite our enthusiasm ! What solemn warnings at once 
demand our vigilance and moderate our confidence ! 

The old world has already revealed to us, in its unsealed books, the 
beginning and end of all its marvellous struggles in the cause of liberty. 
Greece ! lovely Greece ! " the laud of scholars and the nurse of arms," 
where sister republics, in fair processions, chanted the praise of liberty 
and the good — where and what is she ? For two thousand years the op- 
pressors have bound her to the earth. Her arts are no more. The last 
sad relics of her temples are but the barracks of a ruthless soldiery ; the 
fragments of her columns and her palaces are in the dust, yet beautiful 
in ruin. She fell not when the mighty were upon her. Her sons were 
Q 2 



186 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

united at Thermopylae and Maratton ; and the tide of her triumph rolled 
back upon the Hellespont. She was conquered by her own factions. 
She fell by the hands of her own people. The man of Macedonia did 
not the work of destruction. It was already done by her own corrup- 
tions, banishments, and dissensions. Rome ! republican Rome ! whose 
eagles glanced in the rising and setting sun, — where and what is she ? 
The eternal city yet remains, proud even in her desolation, noble in her 
decline, venerable in the majesty of religion, and calm as in the compo- 
sure of death. The malaria has but travelled in the parts won by the 
destroyers. More than eighteen centuries have mourned over the loss 
of the empire. A mortal disease was upon her before Cassar had crossed 
the Rubicon ; and Brutus did not restore her health by the deep prob- 
ings of the senate-chamber. The Groths, and Vandals, and Huns, the 
swarms of the north, completed only what was begun at home. Romans 
betrayed Rome. The legions were bought and sold, but the people of- 
fered the tribute-money. 

And where are the republics of modern times, which cluster around 
immortal Italy ? Venice and Grenoa exist but in name. The Alps, 
indeed, look down upon the brave and peaceful Swiss, in their native 
fastnesses ; but, the guarantee of their freedom is in their weakness, and 
not in their strength. The mountains are not easily crossed, and the 
valleys are not easily retained. When the invader comes, he moves 
like an avalanche, carrying destruction in his path. The peasantry sink 
before him. The country, too, is too poor for plunder, and too rough 
for a valuable conquest. Nature presents her eternal barrier on every 
side, to check the wantonness of ambition. And Switzerland remains, 
with her simple institutions, a military road to climates scarcely worth a 
permanent possession, and protected by the jealousy of her neighbours. 

We stand the latest, and, if we fall, probably the last experiment of self- 
government by the people. We have begun it under circumstances of 
the most auspicious nature. We are in the vigour of youth. Our growth 
has never been checked by the oppression of tyranny. Our constitutions 
never have been enfeebled by the vice or the luxuries of the world. Such 
as we are, we have been from the beginning ; simple, hardy, intelligent, 
accustomed to self-government and self-respect. The Atlantic rolls be- 
tween us and a formidable foe. Within our own territory, stretching 
through many degrees of latitude, we have the choice of many products, 
and many means of independence. The government is mild. The press 
is free. Religion is free — knowledge reaches or may reach every home. 
What fairer prospects of success could be presented ? What means more 
adequate to accomplish the sublime end ? What more is necessary than 
for the people to preserve what they themselves have created ? 

Already has the age caught the sj)irit of our institutions. It has al- 
ready ascended the Andes, and snufi'ed the breezes of both oceans. It 
has infused itself into the life-blood of Europe, and warmed the sunny 
plains of France and the lowlands of Holland. It has touched the 
philosophy of Germany and the north, and, moving onward to the south, 
has opened to Greece the lesson of her better days. 

Can it be, that America, under such circumstances, can betray her- 



ATHEISM. 18-7 

self? That she is to be added to the catalogue of republics, the inscrip- 
tion upon whose ruin is, ^'They were, but they are not!" Forbid it, my 
countrymen : forbid it, Heaven ! 

I call upon you, fathers, by the shades of your ancestors, by the dear 
ashes which repose in this precious soil, by all you are, and all you hope 
to be, resist every project of disunion ; resist every attempt to fetter 
your consciences, or smother your public schools, or extinguish your 
system of public instruction. 

I call upon you, mothers, by that which never fails in woman, the 
love of your offspring, to teach them, as they climb your knees, or lean 
on your bosoms, the blessings of liberty. Swear them at the altar, as 
with their baptismal vows, to be true to their country, and never forsake 
her. 

I call upon you, young men, to remember whose sons you are — whose 
inheritance you possess. Life can never be too short, which brings 
nothing but disgrace and oppression. Death never comes too soon, if 
necessary in defence of the liberties of our country. 



ATHEISM. 

The existence of G-od is stamped in the most legible characters on 
the whole economy of nature — is written on the face of day, in cha- 
racters of radiant light, by every sunbeam which comes down to earth, 
and is reflected by every orb which glitters in the canopy of night. Had 
inspiration never revealed this truth to man, had the lips of the prophets 
never been touched with holy fire, still we had not been without evi- 
dence of the existence, the power, the goodness, and providence of God, 
"■ strong as proofs of holy writ." Let the gloomy atheist open his eyes 
that he may see, and unstop his ears that he may hear, and let him go 
forth and stand beneath the cerulean arch of heaven, surrounded by all 
the wonders of creation, and his proud philosophy will be rebuked. 
"I am" is inscribed on the scroll of nature spread before and around 
him — there is an admonition which comes from the solitude of the forest 
— there is a voice in the breath from the hills — there is a language in 
the rustling leaf — there is a handwriting on the rocks — there is an ex- 
pression in the silence of inanimate creation, to confute his false reason- 
ing and reprove his errors; and there is stamped on every object above 
and around, some attribute of the Creator, to inspire his admiration and 
command his reverence. 

And not only is the existence of God revealed in his works, but he is 
made manifest as " the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." 
He who creates all things, him. self must be uncreated, existing in infi- 
nite majesty, living in the eternity of his own nature, reigning in the 
plenitude of his own omnipotence, for ever sending forth the word which 
creates, supports, and governs all things. 



MELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE WAVES HAVE WORN THE SOLID ROCK. 



I'yE sat and seen one bright wave chase 

Its fellow on the strand, 
Then fall away, nor leare a trace 

Upon the printless sand ; 
Though scarce the pebbles felt the shock, 
The waves have worn the solid rock. 

I've sat and heard the autumn wind 

Amid the branches play, 
So softly mild, so blandly kind. 

It scarcely stirr'd the spray ; 
Yet soon the winter's cold came on. 
And blooms of spring when it.was gone. 

I've sat and seen the evening sua 

Sink from his golden sky ; 
His long bright race of glory run. 

And close his golden eye : 
So slow he pass'd, scarce chang'd the light. 
And yet he left the world in night. 

And like yon sea is human life- 
Events like billows roll ; 
Moment on moment, strife on strife. 



That change us to the soul: 
And joys, like autumn leaves, fall fast ; 
Hope sets, and being's light is past. 

I've stood on earth's most daring height. 

And seen day's orb arise. 
In his magnificence of light. 

To triumph through the skies ; 
And all the dax-kAess of the world 
Far from his shining presence hurl'd. 

All, too, that fades upon the earth. 

Too weak to linger here. 
Re-blossoms with a second birth 

To deck the coming year : 
Shall hope, then, man's eternal dower, 
Be frailer than a falling flower ? 

Ah, no ! like autiimn leaves that die, 

And bloom again in sjjring, 
Fresli joys shall rise from those gone by, 

And purer incense bring: 
And wlien, like suns, Hope sets in night. 
Shall she not beam from worlds more bright ? 



WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE! 



■Woodjian! spare that tree ; 

Touch' not a single bough ; 
In youth it shelter'd me. 

And I'll protect it now. 
"Twas my forefather's hand 

That placed it near his cot: 
There, woodman, let it stand ; 

Thy axe shall harm it not. 

That old, familiar tree. 

Whose glory and renown 
Are spread o'er laud and sea — 

And wouldst thou hack it down? 
Woodman ! forbear thy stroke ; 

Cut not its earth-bound ties : 
Oh ! spare that aged oak. 

Now towering to the skies. 



When but an idle boy, 

I sought its grateful shade; 
In all their gushing joy. 

Here, too, my sisters play'd. 
My mother kiss'd me here ; 

My father press'd ray hand : 
Forgive this foolish tear. 

But let that old oak stand. 

My heart-strings round thee cling 

Close as thy bark, old friend; 
Here shall the wild bird sing. 

And still thy branches bend. 
Old tree ! the storms still brave. 

And, woodman, leave the spot; 
While I've a hand to save. 

Thy axe shall harm it not. G. P. moriws. 



BE GENTLE WITH THY WIFE. 



Be gentle! for you little know 

How many trials rise ; 
Although to thee they may be small. 

To her, of giant size. 

Be gentle ! though perchance that lip 
May speak a murmuring tone, 

The heart may beat with kindness yet, 
And joy to be thine own. 

Be gentle ! weary hours of pain 
'Tis woman's lot to bear ; 



Then yield her what support thou canst, 
And all her sorrows share. 

Be gentle ! for the noblest hearts 
At times may have some grief, 

And even in a pettish word 
May seek to find relief. 

Be gentle ! none are perfect here — 

Thou'rt dearer far than life : 
Then husband, bear, and still forbear — 

Be gentle to thy wife. 



HOPE. — THE TIES OF LOVE. 189 



. HOPE. 

In the vicissitudes and changes incident to human life ; in the nu- 
merous disappointments, sorrows, and afflictions, which in the allotments 
of Providence we are destined to endure ; in the sudden and untimely 
loss of our nearest and dearest friends, when the husband, at the moment 
the sun of happiness begins to shine upon him in all its lustre, is de- 
prived of his only joy; when the wife is doomed to roam in this wide 
world alone, unpitied and unknown, what can cheer the mind, raise 
the drooping soul, calm the agitated bosom, and throw a cheering light 
on the future ? It is Hope ! Sweet Hope ! thou heaven-descended maid ! 
visit thou the abode of misery ; wipe the tear from sorrow's eye ; chase 
away the anguish of despair; sweeten the cup of affliction with thine all- 
soothing dregs ! 

. When giddy youth shall leave the paths of virtue and honour, to wan- 
der on the barren, yet alluring fields of vice, when the fond parent be- 
holds the impending ruin of her darling oifspring, do thou remain to 
afford comfort and consolation ; let thy healing influence take possession 
of his heart, and yield relief. 

When fickle fortune deserts the good, to leave the tender ones with- 
out a home or a friend, do thou put underneath them thine all-support- 
ing arm, and say to them, " I will never desert thee." 

And when mortality shall fail, and the lamp of life shall glimmer in 
this feeble frame, do thou unveil thyself, and bid me wing my way to 
worlds beyond the sun, to live and reign in never-ending bliss. 



THE TIES OF LOVE. 

What is it to woman that the tempest is darkening on the path of 
him she loves ? It is he alone who has power to crush her spirit's 
strength. It is the breath of unkindness only, the unkindness of him 
to whom her soul has clung in its deepest trust, that can wither, beyond 
the power of earthly healing, the energies of her nature. But a portion 
of him, and she the gentle and the feeble, whom his slightest neglect 
would crush as with a heel of iron, goes smilingly and gladly forth to be 
a sharer in the fury and the desolation of the storm. All other ties may 
be severed — penury, bereavement, the world's scorn, all other agonies 
may be meted out to her in her cup of bitterness — and yet her heart, 
however delicately fashioned, hath not utterly lost its capability of sweet 
harmonies. They will still break forth at his touch — his whispered words 
of soothing will pass over the mangled and bleeding tendons of her soul, 
like the breath of spring healing the wounded vine, and all sufi'erings 
will be acccounted as a price of naught for that tenderness which has 
bound up its wounds. Mad and weak devotion ! Vain, all vain and 
unrequited. There is not in man's heart an answering tone to a senti- 
ment of such terrible depth. 



190 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



EVEKAED GRAHAM. 

BY WILLIS G. CLAEK. 

Take back the bo-wl — take back the bowl — 

Reserve it for polluted lij)s — 
I would not bow a stainless soul 

Beneath its foul and dark eclipse. 

John Greenleaf Whittier. 

There are evils in the world, upon which the eloquence of the orator, 
the lyre of the poet, and the deep and overwrought touches of the pencil 
and the pen have dwelt almost in vain. In their description, the wealth 
of language is turned into penury; — the darkest dream of anguish and 
distress but faintly shadows forth the stern and moving reality. The 
strong and emphatic language of Holy Writ, the burning words of David 
and Solomon, are almost impuissant when they are employed in painting 
the awful horror of infidel unbelief, and that destruction of the body and 
soul which follows in the train of Protean drunkenness. They are more 
dire than the fabled Furies; the abysses they open are fiercer than Cocytus 
or Phlegethon ; their grasp is more powerful than the serpents of Laoeoon ; 
the burdens which they impart are more wearisome than the stone of 
Sysiphus or the wheel of Ixion ; and their ascendency is unbroken until 
the understanding is bewildered and the clouded eye becomes tearless; 
until the heart becomes as adamant, and the spirit is goaded and rest- 
less beneath the dominion of remorse ; till the ear tingles with the 
adder-hisses of coward conscience, and the unnerved bosom writhes in the 
emotions of regret, which pierce like a scorpion's sting. 

Infidelity and intemperance go hand in hand. They bid the spirit of 
youth bow down at an unholy shrine; and the sweetest affections, the 
dearest hopes, and fondest visions of earth, are offered up as incense to 
the mysterious divinity of unbelief. This is no ideal picture ; the wide 
world is full of the afflictions that are summoned up like clouds around 
the devious pathway of the blasphemer and the drunkard. The red wine 
brightens alluringly in the goblet ; the shadowy illusions of the skeptic 
come but for a little season with a soothing unction to his mind ; but 
anon there steals to the one the v/ormwood dregs of bitter regret; to the 
other, the clouds which obscure the sunshine of hope ; which spread a 
mournful curtain over the beautiful scenes of human existence, and cre- 
ate unutterable forebodings of that undiscovered country beyond the land 
of death. 

I have little hope that the tale which I am about to relate will cause 
any to release the delusions which they have grasped ; but I am never 
without hope. I would that my pen were dipped in the empyreal fire 
of heaven, that I might show the light which they reject who turn from 
the world of inspiration. I would I might gather upon canvas the 
darkness of the midnight cloud and the fierce lightning of the tempest ; 
I would form a panorama of terrors, which should shadow forth to the 
mad votary of Bacchus and the yictim of unbelief the abyss of de- 



EVEEARD GRAHAM. 191 

strnction -upon wliich they are rushing; which should say to them, "Turn 
ye at my reproof, and heed not the voice of the charmer, charm he never 
so wisely." 

It was a stormy evening in January, 18 — , when my friend Eyesard 
Grahabi and myself were seated by our comfortable grate, in the semi- 
nary of Gr . The coal was reddening behind the bars of its prison, 

and the cheerfulness of our little room was enhanced by the storm with- 
out. We had lately come up from recitations and prayers in the chapel ; 
and had been seated in silence, each indulging in his respective thoughts. 
The snow came pattering gently against the windows ; and by way of 
beguiling the time, I arose and breathed upon a pane, and wrote thereon 
my humble initials. Without, the scene was troublous and uninviting. 
The wide-stretching inland was obscured by the thick wing of the wintry 
tempest ; the wild anthem of the night-wind was loud and dissonant; and I 
soon found that the shadows of the scene around me were gathering over 
my mind. My thoughts went forth amid the curtained skies of even- 
ing, and mighty ideas of infinity and boundless space, of the mystery of 
the air — the distance whence the little motes of snow had fallen ; and I 
was absorbed in meditation. 

I was roused from my revery by the entrance of a lad bearing a letter. 
I stepped forward ; it was for my friend. His large hazel eye was lit 
up pleasantly, and a kindly smile of unwonted delight passed over his 
brow and cheek. He had for some days been moody and restless ; and 
I marked his emotions of pleasure with a lively enjoyment, to which an 
instant before I was a stranger. 

" This is the most lucky moment to receive a letter that I ever ex- 
perienced," said Graham, indulging in that laugh which comes from the 
heart. "You see," said he, "that it is from a woman; — the 'primce, 
tnulieris, of my affections. But I belie her ; she is not a woman, in Ihe 
general acceptation of the term — she is an angel." 

I glanced at the letter as he extended it to me, — and the direction was 
really most beautiful. The blue surface of the epistle seemed to have 
j ust passed from beneath the hands of the copperplate-printer. " You 
see," said Graham, "that it is beautiful; now let me read it; and, as 
you are my confidant, I will show you the alpha and the omega of it." 
He broke the seal ; it began with '■'■Bearest Everard," and closed with 
" For ever yours, Emile Barton." 

" You are not entitled to further freedom," said my friend : " now, go 
meditate, and let thy greedy eyes ' devour up her discourse ;' or, seeing 
your curiosity is awakened, I will give you her picture, ' for you to look 
upon,^ as the primer hath it." 

He drew from his bosom a miniature, suspended by a golden chain ; 
" There," said he, " is one-half of my heart. It is the most beautiful 
half by far, and, I dare be sworn, the mo^t innocent. Now, if you ad- 
mire it, let your admiration be unspeakahle ; for I shall not be at home 
during the next half hour to any body. To save inquiries, however, I 
will say a word or two to you respecting her. She is my intended ; I 
first knew her at the Saratoga cotilions ; — her father is an Englishman ; 
but her mother is one of our cis-atlantic daughters of Eve. It is the long 



192 FIELDS'S SCRAP-EOOK. 

lapse of time since I have heard from the dear girl, that has given me 
the hhies so of late." 

I took the miniature, and never shall I forget the unsullied and per- 
fect beauty that then dawned upon me. The stainless brow was shaded 
with rich clusters and braids of hair, of the colour of gold in shadow ; the 
eye was mild and blue, but about the sweet lips, that seemed the balmy 
prison-gates of delicious kisses, and the dimpled and rose-leaf cheek, there 
played such a pure and sanctified smile, that the picture seemed to be in- 
stinct with the life of heaven. I was dumb with exquisite admiration : — 
and I seemed to be surrounded by the perfect presence of Venus. Little 
did I imagine, as I gazed upon that delicately moulded face, that the clouds 
of early sorrow would so soon overshadow the fair brow; that the white- 
robed bosom would so soon yearn with the pangs of unrequited affection — 
that the azure eye and matchless cheek would be dimmed and stained with 
tears shed in secret — that they would be deluged with the bitter waters 
of a bursting heart ! But let me not anticipate. 

Half an hour passed without a word having been spoken by either of 
us. The reflections which the picture had conjured up kept me silent; 
and Graham read and re-read his letter, without noticing my pleasurable 
revery. At length, he said, '' Well, you seem half-intoxicated — are you 
dizzy with rapture ? If you feel any sensation from that little counter- 
feit, how could you gaze on the original? You would become an 
enthusiast and a worshipper at first sight, as I did. But I am too jocose 
for so sacred a theme ; and my pleasure is already damped by the reflec- 
tion, that my sjnrituelle has, ere this, left America, in the packet of the 
16th, for England. A vast estate has fallen to her father, there, and he, 
with his whole family, have repaired from Barton Hill to Ludgate Hill, 
or some other hill in London. Cruel girl ! She was too affectionate to 
endure the emotions of a farewell, and wrote me late in consequence. 
She had quoted Scripture to me in her epistle ; — something odd for her, 
but it is certainly expressive. She is not aware that I eschew the whole 
of that book, which she holds so sacred. But we will not jar each other 
on that topic. I shall see her by June, in the British metropolis I I 
might as well make my couch on that ardent grate as to remain where 
she is not." 

I returned to him the ti-easure he had shown me, and if I indulged in 
unmingled encomium upon its pervading loveliness, I trust it was not 
undeserved or hypocritical. The eye of my friend glistened with grati- 
fication. 

'' There is never a sweet without its bitter," he said ; " often when 
that beloved girl and I have walked along the vernal shore of the lake 
which stretches along by the mansion of her father, as I gazed upon her 
speaking eye and sinless brow, I have thought myself utterly unworthy 
of her affection. She is too full of ethereal purity for my guilt-stained 
soul. You know, what she does not, that 1 am a skeptic. Her ductile 
and-elastic spirit is full of praise to God when she looks upon his works. 
Often has she spoke to me of the mercies of Heaven, in making us so 
supremely happy in our love ; and, like all her sex, her woman's heart 
seems to forbode evil from the transitory nature of the things of this world. 



EVERARD GRAHAM. 193 

How many times, as we have reposed beneath the trellised vines of her 
father's garden, have I pressed her to my throbbing bosom, and kissed 
away the tears which sensibility had driiwn to her cheek ! But I am 
half-moralizing. It is a sombre theme, with all its delight, and I'll give 
it up for something more exhilarating. Do you love Burgundy ?" 

As he made this interrogation, he went to his closet, and drew forth 
a bottle of the material therefrom ; he cut the wax from its top, and 
drawing the Ions; cork from a locum tenens which it had held while in 
the south of France, and while tilted upon the Atlantic, he filled a glass, 
and presenting it to me, filled another for himself. I refused his offer 
to renew my draught, and soon after retired. 

When I awoke in the morning, the room was full of the smoke of the 
lamp, and Grraham had not been in bed. The wine had disappeared 
from the bottle, and the lamp was upset upon the miniature, which he 
had laid upon the table, and it was broken. G-raham was stupified with 
■wine, and his face looked feverish and sick. The loss of his miniature 
was a source of deep regret; and he lamented it as a fearful omen for the 
future. 

Three months from that morning, Graham sailed for England. His 
education was by no means complete, but he was the idol of an indul- 
gent and wealthy father, who had long favoured his determination of 
making the tour of Europe. If I ever parted from a friend with regret, 
it was from Everard Graham. He had his faults; but, maugre them all, 
I loved him. We vowed mutual and abiding friendship, and a constant 
correspondence; and as my design of visiting England was well known 
and approved of by my pai'ents, I hesitated not to pledge myself to meet 
him in the British metropolis, as soon as my minority should have 
expired. 

Two j^ears after, during which time I had not heard a word from my 
friend, I was in London. I will not attempt to describe my feelings as 
our majestic vessel glided up the Thames. It was a beautiful day in 
September when I first saw at a distance the great cloud of smoke which 
overhung the British capital. Oddly enough, the weather was clear, and 
the yellow sun lit up the countless sails that were passing to and fro, 
with singular beauty. In a short space, I found myself in Picket street, 
in the neighbourhood of Waterloo Bridge and Temple Bar; anon, I was 
mingling with the restless crowd that moved along Fleet street to Lud- 
gate Hill. I soon saw St. Paul's — that mighty edifice, whose towering 
dome looks down upon the riches and poverty — the happiness and misery 
of nearly two millions of immortal souls. 

I pass over the pleasure and newness of enjoyment, with which I 
looked upon the wonders of London, after my letters of introduction had 
been delivered, and my check had been honoured by my banker. It was 
to me a kind of epoch, when I first saw t)ie pave of Regent street Quad- 
rant, and when I walked Great Russell street to Drury Lane Theatre. 
The inquiries I had made among my friends for Graham, however, had 
all proved ineffectual. He had brought introductory letters to some of 
them, and was known as a lounger at the New-England Coffee HousCj 
previous to his leaving London for the continent. 
R 13 



194 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

I was one day returning to my hotel, ^ter a visit to tlie famous Abbey 
of Westminster, when the thought struck me that I would return on the 
river. I accordingly chartered a small boat near Westminster Stairs, 
requesting to be "set down" at Waterloo Bridge. Through the dulness 
of my gondolier, who seemed a half-intoxicated, song-singing varlet, I 
was taken even past Blackfriars, and left at the foot of an obscure lane 
leading into Thames street, whose lamps, already lighted, were twinkling 
in the distance. The first large and heavy drops of an approaching thun- 
der-shower excited me to haste; and the vivid flashes of lightning that 
ever and anon darted athwart the gloom were "spurs to prick the sides 
of my intent." I hurried on ; but the storm had already burst above 
me, and, in a moment of hesitation, I paused and knocked at the low door 
of an obscure and dingy dwelling, whence the only light issued that I 
had witnessed since I left my tuneful Arion of the Thames. It was 
opened by a bloated, fierce-looking female, who, in a gruff voice, asked 
me what I wanted. A loud peal of thunder drowned my reply. I 
pointed without; and the action seemed to content her. She marshalled 
me into a low back-room, requesting me to step lightly as I entered. I 
followed her on tiptoe, and seated myself on a broken bench, by the 
dying embers of a flickering fire. 

The apartment presented a cheerless picture of poverty and desolation. 
One or two mutilated chairs stood near a scantily-furnished table in the 
centre of the room. In one corner, on a low mat, lay a poor, emaciated 
form, apparently groaning in a troubled sleep. I drew near, and as the 
woman re-entered with a lamp, I was struck with astonishment. The 
face was pale, but interesting ; the eyelids were of a dark purple, and 
the cheek hollow. Pressing his lips, as if to nerve him to some imagi- 
nary conflict, he opened his eyes full upon me, as the light shone over 
his lowly pallet. Never shall I forget that look ! The blood rushed 
rapidly to his high forehead — it retreated again to his heart, and left 
him deadly pale. He reached forth his hand, and, in faltering accents, 
pronounced my name. I looked for a moment in doubtful recognition ; 
it was but for a moment; he pronounced the name of Everard Graham. 
My head grew dizzy — my sight failed me, and I was insensible. 

When I recovered, my once high-souled and honourable friend was a 
lifeless corpse before me. The struggle had been too powerful for him 
to endure, and life had ceased in its mighty influence. I made inquiries 
of the unseemly being under whose roof I had taken shelter, and learned 
that he had for the past two months been an inmate of her miserable 
dwelling. His last half-crown had been paid her the day before, and 
there remained no effects to compensate her for her attentions, if he had 
lived longer. There was only a packet in his hat, she said, and that 
she had made him a solemn promise to take to the London Post-office. 
She took down the hat, and handed me the packet. It was sealed with 
black, and bore my direction, with a line to the overseer of the London 
Post-office, requesting it to be sent to America. Finding my efforts 
ineffectual to persuade the woman that the packet bore my name, I pur- 
chased it from her at the price of a guinea, and, leaving her a sufficient 



EVERARD GRAHAM. 195 

sum to defray the funeral obsequies of Graliam, and promising to call 
early the next day, I departed on the cessation of the storm. 

On reaching my hotel, I dismissed my valet from my room, and 
throwing myself on a sofa, I opened the packet and devoured its con- 
tents. It was smoky and mutilated, but I overcame the interlineations, 
and read as follows : 

'^London, October^ 18 — . 

'■'■ To you, my dearly-cherished friend, now that all hope of seeing you 
has passed away for ever, may I now confide the secrets of the last two 
years of my awful life. I shudder to look back upon them, but there 
is no alternative. If this faintly-written record should ever reach you, 
let it be to you the beacon of a mighty warning. I am dying in a foreign 
land, surrounded by many to whom I might apply for relief, were I not 
a midnight murderer, shunning the day, and an irreclaimable sot. The 
weight of my crimes has recoiled back upon my heart, with a keen and 
undying retribution. I have sown the winds of intemperance and un- 
belief — I am reaping the whirlwinds of unutterable monition. The fires 
of agonizing remorse are burning in my blood ; the monitory voice of a 
struggling conscience is thundering in my ears, and I experience the en- 
kindled pangs of a mental hell. God ! with what direful punish- 
ment have my iniquities overwhelmed me ! But I must on. 

" You know the secret of my early love. You know the embarkation 
of Emile Barton for England, and that I followed her soon. Oh, that I 
could describe to you the Eden of happiness that dawned upon me the 
first summer I spent in England. "VVe were married; and time went 
by with his wings glittering in the pearls of hope, and his brow clothed 
in sunshine. We made a delightful tour on the continent, and returned 
with joyful hearts to our metropolitan home, and a lovely daughter was 
at last the pledge of our afi'ection. But, in an evil hour, I surrendered 
myself to the demon of drunkenness, and he bound my bosom in fetters 
of iron. I became the frequenter of the lielU in St. James's; a tippler of 
Johnson's spirits at the Surry Theatre, and a stranger to my home. 
I wasted all my patrimony, and the splendid estate of my kind Emile, 
in one short week, at the gaming-table. I reviled the Scriptures in her 
presence ; I neglected our darling child — in short, I became a madman. 

"I returned home one night, and found the bailiffs at my threshold. 
Our mansion in town was sold, and we rented a pleasant cottage in 
Hampstead. Here, if I had not been more remorseless than the grave, 
I should have paused upon my dark career. But I was too much depraved. 
I became more and more estranged from the angel of my youth ; I re- 
pulsed her overflowing affection, and saw her fading away under the 
influence of my cruelty. She had renounced fashionable life for my 
sake, and it had been our intention to return to America, whither her 
parents had already gone, expecting us soon to follow. 

'' Let me be brief. As I opened, one moonlit evening, the little gate that 
led up to our Hampstead residence, I saw my Emile leaning upon the 
shoulder of a young man, apparently weeping. A hellish suspicion that 
she had dishonoured me rushed upon my brain ; and, stealthily approach- 
ing, I drew a stiletto from my bosom and stabbed her to the heart. She 



196 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOE. 

tm-ned and fixed upon me a look of alternate surprise, reproach, and for- 
eiveness — shrieked, and fell lifeless at my feet. It was her brother ! 

" I cannot long proceed. Since that fatal hour, I have been scorched 
with the lightnings of reproachful thought — I have been a scathed and 
skulking fugitive in the house of a miserable fish-woman. I have quaffed 
deeply of the delirious cup of intoxication ; I have found its dregs to be 
gall and wormwood. My health is wasted — my hopes are dead — and 
the earth seems yawning to clasp me to its icy bosom. Would that 
I were dead ! Would to Grod, that I could find that annihilation 
in which I once believed, but for which I have long ceased to hope. 
Twice have I swallowed poison ; the potent drug has lain harmless within 
me, and God still bids me live and suffer. My wife is buried in a quiet 
church-yard at Hampstead ; and my weakness has at last prevented me 
from indulging the mournful office of weeping at midnight over her 
peaceful grave. My child still lives ; and is the fair and sunny image 
of her sainted mother. If she ever visits America, and this should reach 
you, do not — oh ! do not acquaint her with the unhappy fate of her 
parents ; of that father who was a wretch, — of that spotless mother who 
loved me 'not wisely, but too well.' I can" — 

Here the MS. ended. I give it to the reader as I received it. The 
nest day the remains of Graham were interred in the potters-field of 
one of the almshouses in Kingsland Road. 

The little daughter of my lost friend is with the parents of her mother, 
in America. She is the counterpart of her who bore her ; and like her 
mother in her youth, beloved by all, and caressed with enthusiasm. She 
is the only light thrown upon the sombre history of her mother's sorrow 
and her father's guilt. 



MISTAKES. 



In the olden time, when it was a custom in many parts of New England, 
to sing the psalms and hymns by '^ deaconing" them, as it was called, that 
is, by the deacon's reading each line previous to its being sung, one of these 
church dignitaries rose, and, after looking at his book for some time, and 
making several attempts to spell the words, apologized for the difficulty 
he experienced in reading, by observing, 

"My eyes, indeed, are very blind." 
The choir, who had been impatiently waiting for a whole line, think- 
ing this to be the first of a common-metre hymn, immediately sang it. 
The good deacon exclaimed, with emphasis, 

"I cannot see at all." 

This, of course, was also sung; when the astonished pillar of the church 
cried out, 

" I really b'lieve you are bewitched !" 

Response by the choir : '' I really b'lieve you are bewitched." — Deacon : 

"The dense is in you all." 

The choir finished the verse by echoing the last line, and the deacon 
sat down in despair. 



PARTIXa INTERVIEW WITH EMMETT. 



19T 



PARTINa INTERVIEW WITH EMMETT. 



The evening before his death, while the workmen were busy with the 
scaffold, a young lady was ushered into his dungeon. It was the girl 
'whom he so fondly loved, and who had now come to bid him her eternal 
farewell. He was leaning, in a melancholy mood, against the window- 
frame of his prison, and the heavy clanking of his irons smote dismally 
on her heart. The interview was bitterly affecting, and melted even the 
callous soul of the jailer. As for Emmett, he wept and spoke little ; 
but, as he pressed his beloved in silence to his bosom, his countenance 
betrayed his emotions. In a low voice, half-choked by anguish, he be- 
sought her not to forget him ; he reminded her of their former happi- 
ness, of the long past days of their childhood, and concluded by re- 
questing her sometimes to visit the scenes where their infancy was 
spent, and, though the world might repeat his name with scorn, to cling 
to his memory with affection. At this very instant, the evening bell 
pealed from the neighbouring church. Emmett started at the sound ! 
and as he felt that this was the last time he should ever hear its dismal 
echoes, he folded his beloved still closer to his heart, and bent over her 
sinking form with eyes streaming with affection. The turnkey entered 
at the moment • ashamed of his weakness, he dashed the rising drop 
from his eye, and a frown again lowered on his countenance. The man, 
meanwhile, approached to tear the lady from his embraces. Overcome 
by his feelings, he could make no resistance; but, as he gloomily re- 
leased her from his hold, gave her a little miniature of himself, and, 
with this parting token of attachment, he imprinted the last kisses of a 
dying man upon her lips. On gaining the door, she turned round, as 
if to gaze once more on the object of her widowed love. He caught 
her eye as she retired — it was but for a moment; the dungeon-door 
swung back upon its hinges ; and, as it closed after her, informed him 
too surely, that they had met for the last time on earth. 



* 



* 



* 



Oh ! coU is the grave where he silently slumbers, 

Where naught but the wild-bird his requiem sings ; 
There sad let the minstrel-boy breathe the wild 
numbers 

Of grief o'er the plaintive harp's sorrowing strings. 
Calm, calm is his sleep, and unsullied his glory, 

In the shade of the laurels his martyrdom won, 
And long let his name be emblazon'd in story — 

Green Isle of the ocean! thy patriot son. 

Oh, sweet be his rest, while in sorrow we wail him. 

And mourn o'er his fate in our tremulous songs ! 
Green Erin ! oh, soft let thy bards proudly hail him 

As the hero who bled for thy desolate wrongs ; 
Twine, twine the sad harp with cypress and willow. 

That shade, with their foliage, his mouldering 
' -urn. 
Bedewed with the tear-droijs that bathe hiscold pillow. 

Where sleep the lone relics of him whom we mouru. 

e2 



With naught but the verdure that decks his cold bosom 

And springs through the damp sod that covers his 
breast. 
Or the fragrant perfume of the wild heather blossom 

In the blaze of his glory, oh, there let him rest ! 
But his spirit has fled to a happier heaven — 

Where the bright shades of heroes meet never to 
part: 
O write not his epitaph — let it be graven, 

By Gratitudi'. deep on esieb. patriot heart. 

Sweet harp of my country ! let thy sorrowing numbers 

Breathe o'er the cold grave of him whom vre weep, 
And hallow with music the spot where he slumbers. 

And wake the wild anthem of grief o'er his sleep: 
Then calm be his rest— let him dwell in liis glory. 

In the shade of the laurels his martyrdom won : 
Oh ! long shall his name be recorded in story. 

Green Island of song, as thy patriot sou. 



198 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE SUNSET OF BATTLE. 

The shadows of evening are thickening, twilight closes, and the thin 
mists are rising in the valley ; the last charging squadron yet thunders 
in the distance, but it presses only on the foiled and scattered foe. For 
this day, the fight is over ! 

And those who rode foremost in its fields at morning, where are they 
now ? On the banks of yon little stream there lies a knight — his life- 
blood is ebbing faster than its tide. His shield is rent, and his lance 
is broken. Soldier, why faintest thou? The blood that swells from 
that deep wound shall answer. 

It was this morning that the sun rose bright upon his hopes — it sets 
upon his grave. This day he led the foremost rank of spears, that were in 
their long row levelled. When they had crossed the foe's dark line, death 
shouted in the onset ! It was the last blow that reached him. He has 
conquered, though he shall not triumph in the victory. 

His breastplate is dinted — his helmet has the trace of well-dealt 
blows. The scarf on his breast — she who placed it there would shrink 
to touch it now ! Soldier, what will thy mistress say ? She will say 
that her knight died worthily. 

Ay, rouse thee — for the fight yet chafes in the distance ! Thy friends 
are shouting— thy pennon floats on high. Look on yon crimsoned field, 
that seems to mock the purple clouds above it ! — prostrate they lie, 
drenched in their dark red pool — thy friends and enemies — the dead 
and dying ! The veteran, with the stripling of a day. The nameless 
troops, and the leader of a hundred hosts. Friend lies by friend, 
the steed with his rider, and foes linked in their long embrace — 
their first and last — the grip of death. 

Far o'er the field they lie, a gorgeous prey to ruin ! White plume 
and steel morion ; sabre and ataghan ; crescent and cross ; rich vest and 
bright corselet — we came to the fight, as we had come to a feasting — 
glorious and glittering, even in death, each shining warrior lies. 

His last glance still seeks that Christian banner. The cry that shall 
never be repeated cheers on its last charge. Oh, but for strength to 
reach the field once more ! — to die in the foe's front ? Peace, dreamer ! 
Thou hast done well. Thy place in the close rank is filled — and yet 
another waits for his who holds it. 

Knight, hast thou yet a thought — bend it on Heaven ! The past is 
gone ; the future lies before thee. Graze on yon gorgeous sky — home 
should lie beyond it ! 

. Life — honour — love — they pass to Him that gave them. Pride — 
that came on like ocean's billows — see around thee, how it lies mute 
and passive. The wealthy here are poor. The high-born have no pre- 
cedence. The strong are powerless; the mean, content. The fair and 
lovely have no followers. Soldier, she who sped thee on thy course to- 
day — her blue eye shall seek thee in the conquering ranks to-morrow, 
but it shall seek thee in vain ! Well ! thus it is thou shouldst have 



THE FEMALE HEART. 199 

died ! — ^with all to live for. Wouldst thou be base, to have thy death a 
blessing ? Proud necks shall mourn for thee — bright eyes shall weep 
for thee. They that live shall envy the#. Death ! glory takes out thy 
sting. 

The shades of night are drawing on — soldier, thine e3'^es are darken- 
ing. A last ray of the sun yet lies upon the distant hill — even as he 
sinks, thy soul shall follow him ! See how thy steed feeds beside thee. 
His dark eye falls mildly on his master — and he pauses. Poor wretch ! 
thine instinct sees some wrong, yet knows it not. Browse on, and 
Heaven, which guards its meanest creatures, send thee a kind protector ! 

Warrior ! — ay, the stream of that rill flows cool ; but thy lip no more 
shall taste it. The moonlight that silvers its white foam shall glitter 
on thy corselet when the eye is closed and dim. Lo! now the night is 
coming — the mist is gathering on the hill — the fox steals forth to seek 
his quarry — and the gray owl sweeps whirling by, rejoicing in the still- 
ness. soldier ! — how sweetly now sounds thy lady's lute — ^how 
fragrant are the dew-sprinkled flowers that twine round the easement 
from which she leans ! That lute shall enchant thee, those flowers shall 
delight thee no more. 

One other charge ! — Soldier, it may not be. To thy saint and thy 
lady commend thee ! Hark to the low trumpet that sounds the recall ! 
Hark to its long note — sweet is that sound in the ear of the spent and 
routed foe ! 

The victor hears it not. When the breath rose that blew that note, 
he lived — its peal has rung, and his spirit has departed. Heath ! — thou 
shouldst be a soldier's pillow. Moon ! let thy cold light this night fall 
upon him. But, morning! — thy soft dews shall tempt him not — the 
soldier must wake no more. He sleeps in the sleep of honour. His 
cause was his country's freedom, and her faith. He is dead ! The 
cross of a Christian knight is on his breast — his lips are pressed to his 
lady's token ! — Soldier, farewell. 



THE FEMALE HEABT. 



The female heart may be compared to a garden, which, when well 
cultivated, presents a continued succession of fruits and flowers, to regale 
the soul and delight the eye ; but, when neglected, producing a crop 
of the most noxious weeds ; large and flourishing, because their growth 
is in proportion to the warmth and richness of the soil from which they 
spring. Then let this ground be faithfully cultivated ; let the mind of 
the young and lovely female be stored with useful knowledge, and the 
influence of woman, though undiminished in power, will be like " the 
diamond of the desert," sparkling and pure, whether surrounded by the 
sands of desolation, forgotten and unknown, or pouring its refreshing 
streams through every avenue of the social and moral fabric. 



200 



PIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE TEXAS RANGEK. 



BT J. P. LTTLE. 



MonNT, mount, and away, o'er the green prairie wide ; 
Tlie sword is our sceptre— the fleet steed our pride : 
"Up, up, with our flag; let its bright folds gleam out ; 
Mount, mount, and away o'er the wild border scout. 

AVe care not for danger, we heed not the foe, 
Where our brave steeds bear us, right onward we go ; 
And never, as cowards, will we fly from the fight, 
■While our belts bear a blade— our Star sheds its light. 

Then mount and away, give the fleet steed the rein; 
The Ranger's at home on his prairie again: 
Spur, spur, in tlie chase, dash on to the fight- 
Cry, Vengeance for Texas, and God speed the right. 

The might of the foe gathers thick on our way ; 
They hear our wild shout, as we rush to the prey : 



What to us is the fear of the death-stricken plain? 
We've braved it before, and we'll brave it again. 

The death-dealing bullets around us may fall ; 
They may strike— they may kill — but they cannot 

appal : 
Through the red field of carnage, right onward we'll 

wade. 
While our guns carry ball— our hands wield a blade. 

Hurrah, my brave boys'.— you may fare as you 

please. 
No Mexican banner now floats in the breeze ; 
'Tis the Flag of Columbia that waves o'er each 

height. 
While on its proud folds OUE Star sheds its light. 



AFFECTION'S TEAR. 



There is a tear more pure and bright. 
Than even morn's first blushing light ; 
It sparkles with a milder glow. 
Than sunbeam on the woven snow; 
It is a sweeter, purer gem, 



Than ever breath'd on rose-bud stem : 
Oh, yes, 'tis even lovelier far 
Than evening's first bright glittering star ; 
For 'tis that holy, sacred tear. 
Affection claims her offspring dear. 



"THEY BORE HIM FROM THE WATERS." 

Anincident of the wrecli of the Steamer Atlantic, on Fisher's Island, November 26, 1846. 

BY W. D. GALLAGHER. 

When little Jacob Walton was informed that he alone of all his family had escaped from the wreck of the 

Atlantic, he turned to Mr. Gould, who had saved so many, and exclaimed in substance—" Oh! take me back 

and throw me into the sea! Oh! let me drown with my parents and my brothers and sisters."— PWZ. Amer. 

" Pray, tell me of my father. 

And my brother, bold and strong: 
Why, oh, why do they linger 
Beside the wave so long ?" 



Thet bore him from the waters 

Where they dashed against the rock. 
When the proud and strong Atlantic 

Broke in the tempest's shock. 
The wet locks from his forehead 

They gently laid aside : 
" Where, oh, where is my mother!" 

Reviving soon he cried. 
" Where, oh, where is my mother — 

And my sisters, where are they?" 
" They're gone, poor boy, they've perish'd- 

By the wild waves washed away." 
" Then carry me back to the waters ! 

Oh ! bury me in the sea ! 
In death I would sleep, with my mother— 

And with my sisters be !" 



Alas, poor boy ! they battled 

Most nobly wind and wave : 
Tlie tempest's arm is mighty — 

In the deep they have their grave. 
" Oh, pity me, pity me, stranger, 

And bury me in the sea! 
With my mother, and father, and sisters. 

And brothers, I would be." 

High over the surge's wild rolling. 

As it broke on the desolate shore, 
A knell for the perish'd was tolling;* 

He heard it, and question'd no more. 
He lives : — but oh, many a morrow 

Will dawn with its sigh and tear. 
For his soul hath a phantom-like sorrow. 

That will haunt it through many a year. 



From the wreck, another runner. 

Weary and pale, drew nigh ; 

" And where, oh, where is my father?" 

He asked with gleaming eye. 

* It is a singular and affecting circumstance, confirmed by the latest visitor to the shore of Fisher's Island, 

(the scene of the late disastrous wreck of the steamer Atlantic,) that the bell of the steamer still tolls over 

the scene of desolation. That part of the wreck to which it is attached, happened to lodge in such a positiou 

that the bell was supported out of the water, and, at the motion of every wave, strikes twice : and so, night 

and day, tolls on its doleful notes.— Ifational Intelligencer. 



riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 201 



A LION FIGHT. 

FKOM SALATHIEL. 

Dismounting, for the side of the hill was almost precipitous, I led 
my panting Arab through beds of myrtle, and every lovely and sweet- 
smelling bloom, to the edge of a valley that seemed made to shut out 
every disturbance of man. 

A circle of low hills, covered to the crown with foliage, surrounded a 
deep space of velvet turf, kept green as the emerald by the flow of 
rivulets, and the moisture of a pellucid lake in the centre, tinged with 
every colour of the heavens. The beauty of this sylvan spot was en- 
hanced by the luxuriant profusion of almond, orange, and other trees, 
that, in every stage of production, from the bud to the fruit, covered 
the little knolls below, and formed a broad belt around the lake. 

Parched as I was by the intolerable heat, this secluded haunt of the 
spirit of freshness looked doubly lovely. My eyes, half-blinded by the 
glare of the sands, and even my mind exhausted by perplexities of the 
day, found delicious relaxation in the verdure and dewy breath of the 
silent valley. My barb, with the quick sense of animals accustomed to the 
travel of the wilderness, showed her delight by playful boundings, the 
prouder arching of her neck, and the brighter glancing of her bright eye. 

" Here," thought I, as I led her slowly towards the deep descent, 
'' would be the very spot for the innocence that had not tried the world, 
or the philosophy that had tried it, and found all vanity. Who could 
dream that, within the borders of this distracted land, in the very hear- 
ing, almost in the very sight of the last miseries that man could inflict 
on man, there was a retreat which the foot of man, perhaps, never yet 
deflled ; and in which the calamities that afflict society might be as little 
felt as if it were among the stars !" 

A violent plunge of the barb put an end to my speculation. She ex- 
hibited the wildest signs of terror, snorted and strove to break from me ; 
then, fixing her glance keenly on the thickets below, shook in every 
limb. But the scene was tranquillity itself; the chameleon lay basking 
in the sun, and the only sound was that of the wild doves murmuring 
under the broad leaves of the palm trees. 

But my mare still resisted every efi'ort to lead her downwards ; her 
ears were fluttering convulsively, her eyes were starting from their 
sockets ; I grew peevish at the animal's unusual obstinacy, and was 
about to let her sufi"er for the day, when my senses were paralyzed by 
a tremendous roar. A lion stood on the summit which I had but just 
quitted. He was .not a dozen yards above my head, and his first spring 
must have carried me to the bottom of the precipice. The barb burst 
away at once. I drew the only weapon I had — a dagger — and hopeless 
as escape was, grasping the tangled weeds to sustain my footing, awaited 
the plunge. But the lordly savage probably disdained so ignoble a prey, 
and continued on the summit, lashing his sides with his tail, and tearing 
up the ground. He at length stopped suddenly, listened, as to some ap- 



202 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

proaching foot, and then, with a hideous yell, sprang over me, and was 
in the thicket below at a single hound. 

The whole thicket was instantly alive ; the shade which I had fixed 
on for the abode of unearthly tranquillity was an old haunt of lions, and 
the mighty herd were now roused from their noonday slumbers. Nothing 
could be grander or more terrible than the disturbed majesty of the 
forest kings. In every variety of savage passion, from terror to fury, 
they plunged, and tore, and yelled, darted through the lake, burst through 
the thicket, rushed up the hills, or stood baying and roaring defiance 
against the invader ; the numbers were immense, for the rareness of 
shade and water had gathered them from every quarter of the desert. 

While I stood clinging to my perilous hold, and fearful of attracting 
their gaze by the slightest movement, the source of the commotion ap- 
peared in the shape of a Roman soldier issuing, spear in hand, through 
a ravine at the further side of the valley. He was palpably unconscious 
of the formidable place into which he was entering, and the gallant 
clamour of voices through the hills showed that he was followed by others 
as bold and as unconscious of their danger as himself. 

But his career soon closed ; his horse's feet had scarcely touched the 
turf, when a lion was fixed with fangs and claws on the creature's loins. 
The rider uttered a cry of horror, and, for the instant, sat helplessly 
gazing at the open jaws behind him. I saw the lion gathering up his 
flanks for a second bound, but the soldier, a figure of gigantic strength, 
grasping the nostrils of the monster with one hand, and with the other 
shortening his spear, drove the steel, at one resistless thrust, into the lion's 
forehead. Horse, lion, and rider fell, and continued struggling together. 

In the next moment, a mass of cavalry came thundering down the 
ravine. They had broken off from their march, through the accident of 
rousing a straggling lion, and followed him in the giddy ardour of the 
chase. The sight now before them was enough to apjjal the boldest in- 
trepidity. The valley was filled with the vast herd : retreat was impos- 
sible, for the troopers came, still pouring in by the only pass ; and from 
the sudden descent of the glen, horse and man were rolled head foremost 
among the lions ; neither man nor monster could retreat. The conflict 
was horrible ; and the heavy spears of the legionaries plunged through 
bone and brain. The lions, made more furious by wounds, sprang upon 
the powerful horses, and bore them to the ground, or flew at the troopers' 
throats, and crushed or dragged away cuirass and buckler. The valley 
was a struggling heap of human and savage battle; man, lion, and 
charger, writhing and rolling in agonies, till their forms were undistin- 
guishable. The groans and cries of the legionaries, the screams of the 
mangled horses, and the roars and bowlings of the lions bleeding with 
the sword and spear, tearing the dead, darting up the sides of the hills 
in terror, and rushing down again with a fresh thirst of gore, bafiled all 
conceptions of fury and horror. 

But man was the conqueror at last ; the savages, scared by the spear, 
and thinned in their numbers, made a rush in one body towards the 
ravine, overthrew every thing in their way, and burst from the valley, 
awaking the desert for many a league with their roar. 



peabody's leap. 203 



PEABODY'S LEAP.— A LEGEND OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 

Many are the places, scattered over the face of our beautiful country^ 
whose wild and picturesque scenery is worthy of the painter's pencil or 
the poet's pen. Some of them, which were once celebrated for their rich 
stores of " legendary lore," are now only sought to view their natural 
scenery, while the traditions which formerly gave them celebrity are 
buried in oblivion. Such is the scene of the following adventure, — a 
romantic glen, bounded on the north side by a high and rocky hill, which 
stretches itself some distance into the lake, terminating- in a precipice, 
some thirty feet in height, and once known by the name of " Peabody's 
leap." 

At the time of this adventure, Timothy Peabody was the only white 
man that lived within fifty miles of this place, and his was the daring 
spirit that achieved it. In an attack on one of the frontier settlements, 
his family had all been massacred by the merciless savages, and he had 
sworn that their death should be revenged. The better to accomplish 
this dread purpose, he had removed to this solitary place, and constructed 
the rude shelter in which he dwelt, till the blasts of winter drove him 
to the homes of his fellow-men, again to renew the contest when spring 
had awakened nature into life and beauty. He was a man who possess- 
ed much rude cunning, combined with a thorough knowledge of Indian 
habits, by which he had always been enabled to avoid the snares of his 
subtle enemies. Often when they had come with a party to take him, 
he escaped their lures, and after destroying his hut, on their return 
homeward, some of their boldest warriors were picked off by his unerring 
aim, — or, on arriving at their town, they learned that one of their swiftest 
hunters had been ambushed by him, and fallen a victim to his deadly 
rifle. He had lived in this way for several years, and had so often baffled 
them, that they had at last become weary of the pursuit, and, for some 
time, had left him unmolested. 

About this time, a party of Indians made a descent on one of the 
small settlements, and had taken three men prisoners, whom they were 
carrying home to sacrifice, for the same number of their men that had been 
shot by Peabody. It was towards the close of day when they passed 
his abode ; most of the party in advance of the prisoners, who, with their 
hands tied, and escorted by five or six Indians, were almost wearied out 
by their long march, and but just able to crawl along. He had observed 
this advance guard, and suspecting there were prisoners in the rear, had 
let them pass unmolested, intending to try some '' Yankee trick" to effect 
their rescue. He accordingly followed on in the trail of the part}-, keep- 
ing among the thick trees which on either side skirted the path. He 
had proceeded but a short distance, before he heard the sharp report of 
a rifle, apparently very near him, and which he knew must be one of the 
Indians, who had strolled from the main body, to procure some game 
for their evening meal. From his acquaintance with their habits and 
language, he only needed a disguise, to enable him to join with the 



204 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

party if necessary, and aided by the darkness, whicli was fast approaching, 
with but little danger of detection. The resolution was quickly formed, 
and as quickly put into operation, to kill this Indian and procure his 
dress. 

He had got but a few paces before he discovered his intended victim, 
who had just finished loading his rifle. To stand forth and boldly con- 
front him, would give the savage an equal chance, and if Tim proved 
the best shot, the party on hearing the report of two rifles at once, would 
be alarmed and commence a pursuit. The chance was, therefore, two to 
one against him, and he was obliged to contrive a way to make the Indian 
fire first. Planting himself, then, behind a large tree, he took off his fox- 
skin cap, and placing it on the end of his rifle, began to move it to and 
fro. The Indian quickly discovered it, and was not at a loss to recollect 
the owner by the cap. Knowing how often the white warrior had eluded 
them, he determined to despatch him at once, and without giving him 
notice of his dangerous proximity, he instantly raised his rifle, and its 
contents went whizzing through the air. The ball just touched the bark 
of the tree, and pierced the cap, which rose suddenly, like the death- 
spring of the beaver, and then fell amid the bushes. The Indian, like 
a true sportsman, thinking himself sure of his victim, did not go to pick 
up his game till he had reloaded his piece, and dropping it to the ground, 
he was calmly proceeding in the operation, when Timothy as calmly 
stepped from his hiding-place, exclaiming — " Now, you tarnal kritter, 
say yer prayers as fast as ever you can." 

This was a short notice for the poor Indian. Before him, and scarcely 
ten paces distant, stood the tall form of Peabody, motionless as a statue 
— his rifle to his shoulder — his finger on the trigger^, and his deadly aim 
firmly fixed upon him. He was about to run, but he had not time to 
turn round, ere the swift-winged messenger had taken his flight ; his 
first moment was his last — the ball pierced his side — he sprang in the 
air, and fell lifeless on the ground. 

No time was now to be lost. He immediately proceeded to strip the 
dead body, and to array himself in the accoutrements, consisting of a 
hunting shirt, a pair of moccasins, or leggings, and the wampum belt 
and knife. A little of the blood besmeared on his sunburnt counte- 
nance served for the red paint, and it would have taken a keen eye, in 
the gray twilight and thick gloom of the surrounding forest, to have de- 
tected the counterfeit Indian. Shouldering his rifle, he again started in 
the pursuit, and followed them till they arrived in the glen, where their 
canoes were secreted. Here they stopped, and began to make prepara- 
tions for their expected supper, previous to their embarkation for the 
opposite shore. The canoes were launched, and their baggage deposited 
in them. A fire was blazing brightly, and the party were walking 
around, impatiently waiting the return of the hunter. 

The body of Timothy was safely deposited behind a fallen tree, where 
he could see every motion, and hear every word spoken in the circle. 
Here he had been about half an hour. "Night had drawn her sable 
curtain around the scene ;" or, in other words, it was dark. The moon 
shone fitfully through the clouds which almost covered the horizon, only 



peabody's leap. 205 

serving occasionally to render the "darkness visible." The Indians now 
began to evince manifest signs of impatience for the return of their com- 
rade. They feared that a party of the whites had followed them, and 
taken him prisoner, and at last resolved to go in search of him. The 
plan, which was fortunately overheard by Timothy, was to put the 
captives into one of the canoes, under the care of five of their number, 
who were to secrete themselves in case of an attack, massacre the pri- 
soners, and then go to the assistance of their brethren. 

As soon as the main body had started, Peabody cautiously crept from 
his hiding-place to the water, and sliding in feet foremost, moved along 
on his back, his face just above the surface, to the canoe which contained 
the rifles of the guard. The priming was quickly removed from these, 
and their powder-horns emptied, replaced, and the prisoners given notice 
of their intended rescue ; at the same time warning them not to show 
themselves above the gunwale till they were in safety. He next, with 
his Indian knife, separated the thong which held the canoe to the shore, 
intending to swim off with it, till he had got far enough to avoid obser- 
vation, then get in, and paddle for the nearest place where a landing 
could be effected. All this was but the work of a moment, and he was 
slowly moving off from the shore, as yet unobserved by the guard, who 
little expected an attack from this side. But, unfortunately, his rifle 
had been left behind, and he was resolved not to part with "old plumper," 
as he called it, without at least one effort to recover it. He immediately 
gave the captives notice of his intention, and directed them to paddle 
slowly and silently out, and in going past the head-land, to approach as 
near as possible, and there await his coming. 

The guard, by this time, had secreted themselves, and one of the 
number had chosen the same place which Timothy himself had previously 
occupied, near which he had left his old friend. He had almost got to 
the spot, when the Indian discovered the rifle, grasped it, and springing 
upon his feet, gave the alarm to his companions. Quick as thought, Tim 
was upon him, seized the rifle, and wrenched it from him with such vio- 
lence as to throw him breathless on the ground. The rest of the In- 
dians were alarmed, and, sounding the war-whoop, rushed upon him. 

It was a standard maxim with Timothy, that " a good soldier never 
runs till he is obliged to," and he now found that he should be under 
the necessity of suiting his practice to his theory. There was no time 
for deliberation; he instantly knocked down the foremost with the butt 
of his rifle, and bounded away through the thicket like a startled deer. 
The three remaining Indians made for the canoe in which the rifles were 
deposited, already rendered harmless by the precaution of Timothy. 
This gave him a good advantage, which was not altogether unnecessary, 
as he was much encumbered with his wet clothes, and before he reached 
the goal, he could hear them snapping the dry twigs close behind him. 
The main body had likewise got the alarm, and were but a short distance 
from him when he reached the head-land. Those who were nearest, 
he did not fear, unless they came to close action, and he resolved to 
sepd one more of them to his long home, before he leaped from the pre- 
cipice. 

S 



206 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

"It's a burning shame to wet so mucTi powder," exclaimed he, "I'll 
have one more pop at the tarnal red-skins." Tim's position was quickly 
arranged to put his threat in execution. His rifle was presented, his 
eye glanced along its barrel, and the first one that showed his head 
received its deadly contents. 

In an instant Tim was in the water, making for the canoe. The 
whole party had by this time come up, and commenced a brisk fire upon 
the fugitives. Tim stood erect in the canoe, shouting in the voice of a 
Stentoi", " Ye'd better take care, ye'll spile the skiff. Old plumper's 
safe, and you'll feel him yet, I tell ye !" 

They were quickly lost in darkness, and, taking a small circuit, effected 
a landing in safety. Many a man's life verified his last threat, and Pea- 
body lived to a good old age, having often related to his friends and 
neighbours the adventure which gave to this place the name of " Peabo- 
dy's leap." 



The following beautiful eulogium on the father of our country is said 
to have made its first appearance on the side of a common Liverpool 
pitcher: — 

WASHINGTON, 

The defender of his country, the founder of liberty, the friend of man. 
History and tradition are explored in vain for a parallel to his character. 
In the annals of modern greatness, he stands alone; and the noblest 
names of antiquity lose their lustre in his presence. Borp tHe. benef^iCr* 
tor of mankind, he united all the qualities necessary to an illustrious 
career. Nature made him great; he made himself virtuous. Called by 
his country to the defence of her liberties, he triumphantly vindicated 
the rights of humanity ; and on the pillars of National Independence, laid 
the foundation of a great republic. Twice invested with supreme magis- 
tracy by the voice of a free people, he surpassed in the cabinet the glories 
of the field ; and voluntarily resigning the sceptre and the sword, retired 
to the shades of private life. A spectacle so new and so sublime was 
contemplated with the most profound admiration ; and the name of Wash- 
ington, adding new lustre to humanity, resounded to the remotest regions 
of the earth. Magnanimous in youth, glorious through life, and great 
in death. His highest ambition the happiness of mankind; his noblest 
victory the conquest of himself. Bequeathing to posterity the inherit- 
ance of his fame, and building his monument in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen ; he lived, the ornament of the eighteenth century ; HE died, 
regretted by a mourning world. 



To the lovers of nature every season has its charms. The summer is 
the high noon of the year ; the autumn its sober decline ; the winter its 
night of gloom, while the spring is the fresh morning, the day-dawn of 
the annual circle. 



BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



207 



BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 

With the names of the principal commanders in ecocli, the loss in hilled, 
wounded and prisoners, and the year in which each battle occurred. 



Lexington, 1775. — A skirmish here began the Revolutionary War. 



Bunker Ilill^ 

Flat Bush, or 

Brooklyn, 

IVIiite Plains, 

Trenton, 

Princeton, 

Bennington, 

Brandywine, 

Germantown, 

Stillwater, 



YEAR. 

1775 
1 1776 

1776 

1776 
1777 
1777 
1777 
1777 
1777 



VICTOR. 

Howe, 

Eowe, 



LOSS. 

1054 



DEFEATED. 



LOSS. 

45.3 



1400 

Howe, 3 or 400 
Washington, 9 
Washington, 100 
Starke, 100 

Howe, 500 

Howe, 600 

Gates, 350 



Prescott, 
Putnam,Sunivan,2000 

Washington, 3 or 400 
Rahl, 1000 

Mawhood, 400 

Baum & Bremi7i, 600 
~ "' 1000 

1200 
600 



Washington, 
Washington, 
Burgoyne, 



> — J o a "7 

Saratoga, — Surrender of Burgoyne to Gates, with 5752 men. 

It r J 7- TT^O TTf- - 1_ • i c\c\r\ /^7 . 



lylonmouth, 1778 

Rhode Island, 1778 

Camden, 1780 
King's Mountain,1780 

Cowpens, 1781 

Guilford G. H. 1781 

Eutaw Springs, 1781 



Washington, 230 



Sullivan, 211 
Gornvja.llis, 325 
Campbell, 90 
Morgan, 72 

Cornioallis, 523 

--j_ ^, , .- - Greene, 555 , ^^„„ 

Yorktown, Surrender of GornwalUs to Washington, with 7073 men ; the 
closing scene of the Revolution — 1781. 

British commanders in italics 



Clinton, 

Pigott, 

Gates, 

Ferguson, 

Tarleton, 

Greene, 

Stewart, 



400 
260 
730 

1055 
800 
400 

1100 



WOMAN. 

The celebrated Segur, in his " Essay on Education," remarks, '^ Hea- 
ven, in creating woman, seemed to say to man. Behold either the torment 
or delight of your present and future existence. It is another self which 
I offer you ; in taking charge of her, you ought, in a certain degree, to 
identify her with yourself !" She sustains and nourishes us ; her hands 
direct our earliest steps ; her gentle voice teaches us to lisp our first im- 
pressions; she wipes away the first tears we shed — and soothes the bed 
of death. 



An Englishman in Philadelphia, speaking of President Washington, 
was expressing a wish to an American to see him. While this conver- 
sation passed, " There he goes," replied the American, pointing to a tall, 
erect, dignified personage, passing on the other side of the street. " That 
General Washington!" exclaimed the Englishman, — ''where is his 
guard ?" " Here," replied the American, striking his breast with em- 
phasis. 



208 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



KUNNING FOR LIFE. 

On the arrival of the exploratory party of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke 
at the head waters of the Missouri, one of their numher, of the name 
of Colter, observing the appearance of abundance of beaver, got per- 
mission to remain and hunt for some time, which he did, in company 
with a hunter named Potts. Aware of the hostility of the Blackfeet In- 
dians, one of whom had been killed by Lewis, they set their traps at 
night, and took them up early in the morning, remaining concealed 
during the day. They were examining their traps early one morning, 
in a creek, about six miles from that branch of the Missouri called Jef- 
ferson's Fork, and were ascending in a canoe, when they suddenly heard 
a great noise, resembling the trampling of animals, but they could not 
ascertain the fact, as the high perpendicular banks on each side of the 
river impeded their view. Colter immediately pronounced it to be occa- 
sioned by Indians, and advised an instant retreat, but was accused of 
cowardice by Potts, who insisted that the noise was caused by buifaloes, 
and they proceeded on. In a few minutes afterwards their doubts were 
removed, by a party of Indians making their appearance on both sides 
of the creek, to the amount of five or six hundred, who beckoned them 
to come on shore. As retreat was now impossible. Colter turned the head 
of the canoe to the shore, and at the moment of its touching, an Indian 
seized the rifle belonging to Potts; but Colter, who is a remarkably 
strong man, immediately retook it, and handed it to Potts, who remained 
in the canoe, and on recovering it pushed off into the river. He had 
scarcely quitted the shore, when an arrow was shot at him, and he cried 
out, '■'■ Colter, I am wounded." Colter remonstrated with him on the 
folly of attempting to escape, and urged him to come on shore. Instead 
of complying, he instantly levelled his rifle at an Indian, and shot him 
dead on the spot. This conduct, situated as he was, may appear to have 
been an act of madness, but it was doubtless the eff'ect of sudden but 
sound enough reasoning, for, if taken alive, he must have expected to 
be tortured to death, according to the Indian custom. He was instantly 
pierced with arrows so numerous, that, to use the language of Colter, "he 
was made a riddle of." They now seized Colter, stripped him entirely 
naked, and began to consult on the manner in which he should be put to 
death. They were first inclined to set him up as a mark to shoot at ; but 
the chief interfered, and, seizing him by the shoulder, asked him if he 
could run fast. Colter, who had been some time among the Kee Katsa, 
or Crow Indians, had in a considerable degree acquired the Blaekfoot 
language, and was also well acquainted with Indian customs ; he knew 
that he had now to run for his life, with the dreadful odds of five or six 
hundred against him, and these armed Indians; he therefore cunningly 
replied, that he was a very bad runner, although he was considered by 
the hunters as remarkably swift. The chief now commanded the party 
to remain stationary, and led Colter out on the prairie, three or four 
hundred yards, and released hi in,, bidding him to save himaeJ/ if lie could. 



RUNNING FOR LIFE. 20O 

At that instant the war-wlioop sounded in the ears of poor Colter, ■who, 
urged with the hope of preserving life, ran with a speed at which he 
was himself surprised. He proceeded towards the Jefferson Fork, having 
to traverse a plain sis miles in breadth, abounding with the prickl_Y pear, 
on which he was every instant treading with his naked feet. He ran 
nearly halfway across the plaiii before he ventured to look over his 
shoulder, when he perceived that the Indians were very much scattered, 
and that he had gained ground to a considerable distance from the main 
body ; but one Indian, who carried a spear, was much before all the rest, 
and not more than a hundred yards from him. A faint gleam of hope 
now cheered the heart of Colter; he derived confidence from the belief 
that escape was within the bounds of possibility, but that confidence was 
nearly fatal to him ; for he exerted himself to such a degree, that the 
blood gushed from his nostrils, and soon almost covered the fore part of 
his body. He had now arrived within a mile of the river, when he dis- 
tinctly heard the appalling sound of footsteps behind him, and every 
instant expected to feel the spear of his pursuer. Again he turned his 
head, and saw the savage not twenty yards from him. Determined, if 
possible, to avoid the expected blow, he suddenly stopped, turned round, 
and spread out his arms. The Indian, surprised by the suddenness of 
the action, and perhaps at the bloody appearance of Colter, also attempt- 
ed to stop, but exhausted with running, he fell while endeavouring to 
throw his spear, which stuck in the ground, and broke in his hand. 
Colter instantly snatched up the pointed part, with which he pinned him 
to the earth, and then continued his flight. The foremost of the Indians, 
on arriving at the place, stopped till others came up to join them, when 
they set up a hideous yell. Every moment of this time was improved 
by Colter, who, although fainting and exhausted, succeeded in gaining 
the skirting of the cotton-wood trees on the border of the Fork, to 
which he ran and plunged into the river. Fortunately for him, a little 
below this place there was an island, against the upper point of which a 
raft of drift timber had lodged ; he dived under the raft, and, after several 
efforts, got his head above water, among the trunks of trees, covered 
over with smaller wood, to the depth of several feet. Scarcely had he 
secured himself, when the Indians arrived on the river, screeching and 
yelling, as Colter expressed it, " like so many devils." They were fre- 
quently on the raft during the day, and were seen through the chinks by 
Colter, who was congratulating himself on his escape, until the idea 
arose that they might set the raft on fire. In horrible suspense he re- 
mained until night, when, hearing no more of the Indians, he dived from 
under the raft, and swam instantly down the river to a considerable 
distance, when he landed, and travelled all night. Although happy in 
having escaped from the Indians, his situation was still dreadful ; he 
was completely naked, under a burning sun ; the soles of his feet were 
filled with the thorns of the prickly pear; he was hungry and had no 
means of killing game, although he saw abundance around him, and was 
at a great distance from the nearest settlement. Almost any man but an 
American hunter would have despaired under such circumstances. The 

fortitude of Colter continued unshaken. After seven days' sore travel, 
s2 li J ; 



210 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

during which he had no Other subsistence than the root known by natu- 
ralists under the name of 2^soralea esculenta, he at length arrived iu 
safety at Lisa's fort, on the Bighorn branch of the Roche Jaune river. — 
Bradbury' s Travels in the Interior of North America. 



THE TREACHEROUS HOSTS. 

Many years since, a seafaring man called at a village on the coast of 
Normandy, and asked for supper and a bed ; the landlord and landlady 
were elderly people, and apparently poor. He entered into conversation 
with them — invited them to partake of his cheer — asked many questions 
about them and their family, and particularly of a son, who had gone to 
sea when a boy, and whom they had long given over as dead. The land- 
lady showed him to his room, and when she quitted him, he j)ut a purse 
of gold into her hand, and desired hec to take care of it till morning — 
pressed her affectionately by the hand, and bade her good-night. She 
returned to her husband, and showed him the accursed gold ; for its sake 
they agreed to murder the traveller in his sleep, which they accom- 
plished, and buried the body. In the morning early, came two or three 
relations, and asked in a joyful tone for the traveller who had arrived 
the night before. The old people seemed greatly confused, but said, that 
he had risen early and gone away. " It is your own son, who has lately 
returned from sea, and is come to make happy the evening of your 
days, and resolved to lodge with you oae night as a stranger, that he 
might see you unknown, and judge of your conduct to wayfaring mari- 
ners." Language would be incompetent to describe the horrors of the 
murderers, when they found they had dyed their hands in the blood of 
their long-lost child. They confessed their crime, the body was found, 
and the wretched murderers expiated their offence by being broken alive 
on the wheel. 



CLOSING- SCENES OF LIFE. 



The last words of Thomas Jefferson were, '' I resign my soul to my 
God, and my daughter to my country." John Adams, near his end, 
roused by the firing of cannon, and being told the people were rejoicing 
for the fourth of July, said, '' It is a great and glorious day" — and ex- 
pired with the words "Independence for ever!" trembling on his lips. 
The Commercial Advertiser states, that when the noise of the firing 
began at midnight, the dying Monroe "opened his eyes inquiringly, 
and when the cause was communicated to him, a look of intelligence 
indicated that he understood what the occasion was." We know not if 
there be upon record more striking instances than these, of the " ruling 
passion strong in death." 



COLONEL CROGHAN. 211 



COLONEL CROGHAN. 

Mr. Breckenridge, in liis history of the late war, thus describes 
the gallant defence of Fort Sandusky : — 

The transactions which are now to be related may justly rank among 
the most pleasing to our feeling and national pride, of any which took 
place during the contest. The campaign opened with an affair, which, 
though comparatively of smaller consequence than some others, is in its 
circumstances one of the most brilliant that occurred during the war. 
This was the unparalleled defence of fort Sandusky, by a youth of twenty- 
one years of age. In August, and before the arrival of the Ohio and 
Kentucky volunteers, which did not take place until the following month, 
threatening movements had been made upon all the different forts, esta- 
blished by the Americans on the rivers which fall into lake Erie. After 
the siege of fort Meigs, the British had been considerably reinforced by 
regulars, and an unusual number of Indians, under their great leader 
Tecumseh. It was all-important to reduce these forts before the arrival 
of the volunteers. Major Croghan, then commanding at Upper San- 
dusky, having received intimation that the enemy were about to invest 
the fort of Lower Sandusky, had marched to this place with some addi- 
tional force, and had been occupied with great assiduity in placing it in 
the best posture of defence. But the only addition of importance, which 
the time would allow him to make, was a ditch of six feet deep and nine 
feet wide, outside the stockade of pickets by which these hastily-con- 
structed forts are enclosed, but which can afford but a weak defence 
against artillery. He had but one six-pounder, and about one hundred 
and sixty men, consisting of regulars, and detachments of the Pittsburg 
and Petersburg volunteers. General Harrison, not conceiving it practi- 
cable to defend the place, ordered young Croghan to retire on the 
approach of the enemy, after having destroyed the works. This our 
young hero, taking the responsibility upon himself, determined to dis- 
obey. 

On the first of August, General Proctor, having left a large body of 
Indians under Tecumseh, to keep up the appearance of a siege of fort 
Meigs, arrived at Sandusky with about five hundred regulars, seven 
hundred Indians, and some gun-boats. After the General had made 
such dispositions of his troops as to cut off the retreat of the garrison, 
he sent a flag by Colonel Elliot and Major Chambers, demanding a sur- 
render, accompanied with the usual base and detestable threats of butchery 
and cold-blood massacre, if the garrison should hold out. A spirited 
answer was returned by Croghan, who found that all his companions, 
chiefly striplings like himself, would support him to the last. 

When the flag returned, a brisk fire was opened from the gun-boats 
and a howitzer, which was kept up during the night. In the morning, 
they opened with three sixes, which had been planted, under cover of 
the night, within two hundred and fifty yards of the pickets, but not 
with much effect. x\bout four o'clock in the afternoon, it was discovered 



212 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

that the enemy bad concentrated his fire against the north-west angle, 
•with the intention of making a breach. This part was immediately 
strengthened by the apposition of bags of flour and sand, so that the 
pickets sulFered but little injury. During this time, the six-pounder 
was carefully concealed in the bastion which covered the point to be 
assailed, and it was loaded with slugs and grape. About five hundred 
of the enemy now advanced in close column to assail the part where it 
was supposed the pickets must have been injured, at the same time 
making several feints to draw the attention of the besieged to other 
parts of the fort ; their force being thus divided, a column of three 
hundred and fifty men, which were so enveloped in smoke as not to be 
seen until they approached within twenty paces of the lines, advanced 
rapidly to the assault. A fire of musketry from the fort for a moment threw 
them into confusion, but they were quickly rallied by Colonel Short, their 
commander, who, now springing over the outer works into the ditch, 
commanded the rest to follow, crying out, " Grive the damned Yankees 
no quarter !" Scarcely had these detestable words escaped his lips, and 
the greater part of his followers landed in the ditch, when the six- 
pounder opened upon them a most destructive fire, killing and wounding 
the greater part, and among the first the wretched leader, who was 
sent into eternity before his words had died upon the air. A volley 
of musketry was, at the same time, fii-ed upon those who had not ven- 
tured. The officer who succeeded Short, exasperated at being thus 
treated by a few boys, formed his broken column, and again rushed to 
the ditch, where he, and those who dared to follow him, met with the 
same fate as their fellow soldiers. The small arms were again played 
on them, the whole British force was thrown into confusion, and in spite 
of the exertions of their officers, fled to the woods, almost panic- struck, 
whither they were soon followed by the Indians. Thus were these men, 
confident of success, ;ind detestable in the intended use of victory, most 
signally chastised, under Pro^ddence, by a force scarce a tenth part of 
their numbers. Terror indescribable took possession of the assailants, 
and they retreated towards their boats, scarcely daring to look back upon 
the fatal spot ; while they were followed by their allies in sullen silence. 
If this gallant defence deserves the applause of the brave, the subse- 
quent conduct of the besieged deserves the praise of every friend of 
humanity. The scene which now ensued deserves to be denominated 
sublime. The little band, forgetting in a moment that they had been 
assailed by merciless foes, who sought to massacre them, without regard- 
ing the laws of honourable war, now felt only the desire of relieving 
wounded men, and of administering comfort to the wretched. Had 
they been friends, had they been brothers, they could not have expe- 
rienced a more tender solicitude. The whole night was occupied in en- 
deavouring to assuage their sufierings ; provisions and buckets of water 
were handed over the pickets, and an opening was made, by which many 
of the sufferers were taken in, who were immediately supplied with 
surgical aid ; and this, although a firing was kept up with small arms 
by the enemy until some time in the night. The loss of the garrison 
amounted to one killed and seven wounded ; that of the enemy, it is 



INFANCY. 213 

supposed, to at least two hundred. Upwards of fifty were found in and 
about the ditch. It was discovered next morning, that the enemy had 
hastily retreated, leaving a boat and a considerable quantity of military 
stores. Upwards of seventy stand of arms were taken, besides a quan- 
tity of ammunition. The Americans were engaged during the day in 
burying the dead with the honours of war, and providing for the 
wounded. 

This exploit called forth the admiration of every party in the United 
States. Croghan, together with his companions, Captain Hunter, and 
Lieutenants Johnson, Bayley, and Meeks, of the seventeenth ; Anthony, 
of the twenty-fourth ; and Ensigns Ship and Duncan, of the seventeenth, 
together with the other officers and volunteers, were highly compli- 
mented by the general. They afterwards received the thanks of Con- 
gress. Croghan was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and 
was presented with an elegant sword by the ladies of Chillicothe. 



INFANCY. 



What is more beautiful than an infant ? Look at its spotless brow, 
at its soft and ruddy lips, which have never uttered an unholy word — 
and at its blue laughing eye, as it lies on the breast of its fond mother I 
Look, it has stretched out its white hand, and is playfully twisting her 
hair around its tiny fingers. Look at an infant ! It is innocence endued 
with life ; the counterpart of holiness. It requires nothing but the 
pleasant look of its mother, and her warm kiss upon its lily cheek, to 
make it happy. You may talk to it of sorrow, of misery, of death, but 
your words are unmeaning. It has never felt the chills of disappoint- 
ment ; it has never writhed beneath the pang of affliction, and its guile- 
less heart knows nothing of the emptiness, the hollow professions, and 
cold-heartedness of the world ; and would to Grod that the cup may be 
broken ere it be lifted to its lips. 



WOMEN. 



All the influence which women enjoy in society, — their right to the 
exercise of that maternal care which forms the first and most indelible 
species of education ; the wholesome and mitigating restraint which they 
possess over the passions of mankind ; their power of protecting us when 
young and cheering us when old, — depend so entirely upon their per- 
sonal purity, and the charm which it casts around them, that to insinuate 
a doubt of its real value is wilfully to remove the broadest corner-stone 
on which civil society rests, with all its benefits, and with all its com- 
forts. — Scott. 



214 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE WANDERER'S RETURN. 



The day was gone, and the night was dark. 

As the howling winds went by. 
And the blinding sleet fell thick and fast 

From a stern and stormy sky. 
When a mournful wail, through the rushing gale 

Was heard at the cottage door— 
Oh ! carry me back — oh ! carry me back 

To my mother's home, once more. 

'Twas a youth who had left his mountain home. 

He had wander'd far and long ; 
He had drain'd the goblet's fiery tide. 

At the festal midnight throng : 
But a dream of home came o'er his heart. 

As he crept to the cottage door — 
Oh ! carry me back — oh ! carry me back 

To my mother's home, once more. 



I have left the hall of the tempter's power. 

And the revel wild and high— 
They cared not in their reckless mirth 

If I wandered alone to die. 
Doth the fire still burn on the household hearth. 

By the elm-tree, old and hoar? 
Oh ! carry me back — oh ! carry me back 

To my mother's home, once more. 

Like the weary bird that has wander'd long, 

I will seek my mountain nest. 
And lay this aching head once more. 

On my gentle mother's breast. 
Once more will I seek the household hearth. 

By the elm-tree, old and hoar — , 
Oh ! carry me back — oh ! carry me back 

To my mother's home, onoa more. 



[From the Galveston News.] 

THE MIER PRISONER'S LAMENT. 

Air — "Bonnie Doon." 



Te warbling birds, in shady bowers. 

Your thrilling melodies, how gay ! 
They bring to mind the rapturous hours 

I've spent with one who's far away : 
When wand'ring by some crystal rill, 

Wliere fragrance floats on every breeze, 
I oft have heard those notes so shrill, 

JVIid sylvan groves of spreading trees. 

Those very notes I oft have heard. 

In deep wild-wood on summer's day. 
When I was with my gentle bird, 

My Isabel, who's far away. 
Those blissful hours of peace have passed, 

Which I so happily enjoy 'd, 
And I am now in prison east. 

With even worse than death annoy'd. 



Whene'er ye waft on airy wing. 

And through the blue expansion stray, 
Go to my love and say, "We bring 

A tear from one who's far away." 
Your freedom, birds, I envy not ; 

But to my fate am reconciled : 
If to be freed should be my lot, 

I oft may hear your warblings wild. 

If this dull frame be doomed to death. 

Ere time shall bring another day, 
Go, tell my wife my latest breath 

Was spent for one who's far away : 
Go, tell her that her husband died 

At peace with God — his sinS forgiven — 
That the last words his spirit sigh'd, 

Were—" May we meet AGAiif IN heaven ! 



BROTHER, COME HOME, 



The following beautiful lines were addressed by a sister to her brother, now residing in California. 



Come home — 
Would I could send my spirit o'er the deep — 

Would I could wing it like a bird to thee. 
To commune with thy thoughts, to fill thy sleep 
With these unwearying words of melody — 

Brother, come home. 

Come home — 
Come to the hearts that love thee, to the eyes 

That beam in brightness but to gladden thine; 
Come where fond thoughts like holiest incense rise ; 
Where oheiish'd memory rears her altar's shrine — 
Brother, come home. 



Come home — 
Come to the hearthstone of thy earlier days ; 

Come to the ark, like the o'er wearied dove ; 
Come with the sunlight of thy heart's warm rays ; 
Come to the fireside circle of thy love- 
Brother, come home. 

Come home — 
It is not home without thee — the lone seat 

Is still xmclaimed where thou wast wont to be ; 
In every echo of returning feet. 
In vain we list for what should herald thee — 

Brother, come home. 



WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 215 



WHITE-HEADED, OR BALD EAGLE. 

BY WILSON. 

This distinguisliecl bird, as lie is the most beautiful of his tribe in this 
part of the world, and the adopted emblem of our country, is entitled 
to particular notice. The celebrated cataract of Niagara is a noted place 
of resort for the bald eagle, as well on account of the fish procured there, 
as for the numerous carcasses of squirrels, deer, bears, and various other 
animals, that, in their attempts to cross the river above the falls, have 
been dragged into the current, and precipitated down that tremendous 
gulf, where, among the rocks that bound the rapids below, they furnish 
a rich repast for the vulture, the raven, and the bald eagle, the subject 
of the present account. He has been long known to naturalists, being 
common to both continents, and occasionally met with from very high 
northern latitudes to the borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the 
vicinity of the sea, and along the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large 
rivers. Formed by nature for braving the severest cold ; feeding equally 
on the produce of the sea and of the land ; possessing powers of flight capa- 
ble of outstripping even the tempests themselves ; unawed by any thing 
but man ; and from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad 
at one glance on an immeasurable expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and 
ocean, deep below him, he appears indifferent to the little localities of 
change of season ; as, in a few minutes, he can pass from summer to 
winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode 
of eternal cold, and from thence descend at will to the torrid or the arctic 
regions of the earth. He is, therefore, found at all seasons in the coun- 
tries he inhabits, but prefers such places as have been mentioned above, 
from the great partiality he has for fish. 

In procuring these, he displays, in a very singular manner, the genius 
and energy of his character, which is contemplative, daring, and tyranni- 
cal ; attributes not exerted but on particular occasions, but, when put 
forth, overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the high dead limb of 
some gigantic tree that commands a wide view of the neighbouring shore 
and ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the feathered 
tribes that pursue their busy avocations below; the snow-white gulls 
slowly winnowing the air ; the busy tringae coursing along the sands ; 
trains of ducks streaming over the surface ; silent and watchful cranes, 
intent and wading; clamorous crows; and all the winged multitudes 
that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid magazine of nature. High 
above these, hovers one whose action instantly arrests his whole atten- 
tion. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in air, he 
knows him to be the fish-hawk, settling over some devoted victim of the 
deep. His eye kindles at the sight, and, balancing himself with half- 
opened wings on the branch, he watches the result. Down, rapid as an 
arrow from heaven, descends the distant object of his attention, the 
roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, making 



216 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

the surges foam around ! At this moment, the eager looks of the eagle 
are all ardour ; and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk 
once more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting into the air 
with screams of exultation. These are the signals for our hero, who, 
launching into the air, instantly gives chase and soon gains on the fish- 
hawk ; each exerts his utmost to mount above the other, displaying in 
these rencounters the most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The 
unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reach- 
ing his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and 
honest execration, the latter drops his fish; the eagle, poising himself for 
a moment as if to take a more eertain*aim, descends like a whirlwind, 
snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten 
booty silently away to the woods. 

These predatory attacks and defensive manoeuvres of the eagle and 
the fish-hawk are matters of daily observation along the whole of our 
seaboard, from Georgia to New England, and frequently excite great 
interest in the spectators. Sympathy, however, on this as on most other 
occasions, generally sides with the honest and laborious sufferer, in oppo- 
sition to the attacks of power, injustice, and rapacity, qualities for which 
our hero is so generally notorious, and which, in his superior, man, are 
certainly detestable. As for the feelings of the poor fish, they seem alto- 
gether out of the question. 

When driven, as he sometimes is, by the combined courage and perse- 
verance of the fish-hawks from their neighbourhood, and forced to hunt 
for himself, he retires more inland, in search of young pigs, of which he 
destroys great numbers. In the lower parts of Virginia and North Ca- 
rolina, where the inhabitants raise vast herds of those animals, com- 
plaints of this kind are very general against him. He also destroj^s 
young lambs in the early part of spring, and will sometimes attack old 
sickly sheep, aiming furiously at their eyes. 



GOD SEES ME. 



Persons inclined to the sin of stealing are satisfied if they can only 
be certain they shall not be discovered. I once heard it related, that a 
man who was in the habit of going to a neighbour's cornfield, to steal the 
ears, one day took with him his son, a boy of eight years of age. The 
father told him to hold the bag, while he looked if any one was near to 
see him. After standi»g on the fence, and peeping through all the corn 
rows, he returned to take the bag from the child, and began his guilty 
work. "Father," said the boy, "you forgot to look somewhere else." 
The man dropped the bag in aff'right, and said, " "Which way, child ?" sup- 
posing he had seen some one. " You forgot to look up to the sky, to 
see if God was noticing you." The father felt this reproof of the child 
so much, that he left the corn, returned home, and never again ventured 
to steal; remembering the truth his child had taught him, that the eye 
of God always beholds us. " God sees me," is a thought that would keep 
us from evil acts, if we would try, constantly, to feel its truth. 



THE MOCKING-BIKD. 217 



THE MOCKING-BIRD. 

BY WILSON. 

The intelligence which the American mocking-bird displays in listen- 
ing to, and laying up lessons, from almost every species of the feathered 
creation within his hearing, is really surprising, and marks the pecu- 
liarity of his genius. He possesses a voice full, strong, and musical, 
and capable of almost every modulation, from the clear mellow notes of 
the wood-thrush, to the savage scream of the bald-headed eagle. In 
the measure and accent, he faithfully follows his originals. In force 
and sweetness of expression, he greatly improves upon them. In his 
native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush or half-grown tree, in 
the dawn of a dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a 
multitude of warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over every 
competitor. jSTeither is this strain altogether imitative. His own native 
notes, which are easily distinguishable, are bold and full, and varied 
seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of two, 
three, or at most five or six syllables, generally interspersed with imita- 
tions, and all of them uttered with great emphasis and rapidity, and 
continued with undiminished ardour. The buoyant gayety of his action 
arresting the eye, as his song most irresistably does the ear, he sweeps 
around with an enthusiastic ecstasy ; he mounts and descends as his 
song swells or dies away, and, as it has been beautifully expressed, " he 
bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his 
very soul, expired in the last elevated strain." "While exerting himself, 
a bystander, destitute of sight, would suppose that the whole feathered 
tribe had assembled together on a trial of skill, each striving to produce 
his utniost effect, so perfect are his imitations. He many times de- 
ceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that perhaps are 
not within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates ; even 
birds themselves are frequently imposed on by this admirable mimic, 
and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mate, or dive v/ith precipi- 
tation into the depth of the thickets, at the scream of what they sup- 
pose to be the sparrow-hawk. 

The mocking-bird loses little of the power and energy of his song by 
confinement. In his domesticated state, when he commences his career 
of song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the 
dog 5 Coisar starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He 
squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about with hang- 
ing wings and bristled feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. 
The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a pass- 
ing wheelbarrow, follow with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the 
tune taught him by his master, though of considerable length, fully 
and faithfully. He runs over the quiverings of the Canary and the 
clear whistlings of the Virginia nightingale, or redbird, with such su- 
perior execution and effect, that the mortified songsters feel their own 
T 



218 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

inferiority, and become altogether silent, while he seems to triumph in 
their defeat by redoubling his exertions. 

This excessive fondness for variety, however, in the opinion of some 
injures his song. His elevated imitations of the brown-thrush are fre- 
quently interrupted by the crowing of cocks ; and the warblings of the 
bluebird, which he exquisitely manages, are mingled with the screaming 
of swallows or the cackling of hens ; amid the simple melody of the 
robin, we are suddenly surprised by the shrill reiterations of the whip- 
poor-will; while the notes of the killdeer, bluejay, martin, and twenty 
others, succeed with such imposing reality, that we look around for the 
originals, and discover, with astonishment, that the sole performer in 
this singular concert is the admirable bird now before us. During this 
exhibition of his powers, he spreads his wings, expands his tail, and 
throws himself around the cage in all the ecstasy of enthusiasm, seem- 
ing not only to sing, but to dance, keeping time to the measure of his 
music. Both in his native and domesticated state, during the solemn 
stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he begins 
his delightful solo, and serenades us the livelong night with a full dis- 
play of his vocal powers, making the whole neighbourhood ring with 
his inimitable medley. 



THE COAT OF MAIL. 

Just before Napoleon set out for the court of Belgium, he sent to 
the cleverest artisan of his class in Paris, and demanded of him whether 
he would engage to make a coat of mail, to be worn under the ordinary 
dress, which should be absolutely bullet-proof; and that if so, he might 
name his own price for such a work. The man engaged to make the 
desired object, if allowed proper time, and he named eighteen thousand 
francs as the price of it. The bargain was concluded, and in due time 
the work was produced, and its maker honoured with a second audience 
of the emperor. *' Now," said his imperial majesty, "put it on." 
The man did so. " As I am to stake my life on its efficacy, you will, I 
suppose, have no objections to do the same." And he took a brace of 
pistols, and prepared to discharge one of them at the breast of the 
astonished artisan. There was no retreating, however, and, half-dead 
with fear, he stood the fire, and, to the infinite credit of his work, with 
perfect impunity. But the emperor was not content with one trial ; he 
fired the second pistol at the back of the trembling artisan, and after- 
wards discharged a fowling-piece at another part of him, with similar 
effect. "Well," said the emperor, "you have produced a capital work, 
undoubtedly — what is the price of it?" "Eighteen thousand francs 
were named as the agreed sum." " There is an order for them," said 
the emperor, " and here is another, for an equal sum, for the fright 
that I have given you." 



THE HAZLEWOOD FAMILY. 219 



THE HAZLEWOOD FAMILY. 

A TALE OF THE REVOLUTION. 

"Alas, what lofty devotion — what blissful recollections — what high hopes — what 
nnsullied love— what pure affection — what ardent patriotism, has been swallowed up 
by thee, thou unrelenting past !" — Anon. 

" MOTHER, they are coming, they are coming I" shouted little 
Maria Hazlewood, as she came flying into the apartment where her mo- 
ther and sister were preparing tea ; her dark hair floating loose around 
her white neck, her blue eyes sparkling with pleasure, and her fine 
countenance lighted up with animation, as she threw herself into her 
mother's arms. 

" Who, my dear Maria, are coming?" 

" Why, brother Charles, and Arthur : I saw them on the hill beyond 
the river," replied the happy girl, as she hastened down the avenue to 
meet her brother. 

" Heaven be praised I" said Mrs. Hazlewood, as she heard the wel- 
come news ; and the quick flush that passed over the features of the 
eldest sister, the beautiful Ellen, plainly told that Maria's intelligence 
was no less agreeable to her. 

The last two days had been days of fearful anxiety with the Hazle- 
wood family. They had heard of the conflict and victory of the Cow- 
pens — the defeat and flight of Tarleton's invincibles, as they had hitherto 
been deemed — and the part that Lieutenant-Colonel Washington's troop 
took in that brilliant afi"air was proclaimed by every tongue. But in 
that gallant troop, was a son and a friend ; and was it not probable that, 
among the brave men who had sealed the victory with their blood, 
Charles or Arthur had fallen ? 

Captain Hazlewood had early enlisted with all his heart in the service 
of his country, and fell, mortally wounded, in the disastrous attack on 
Savannah. He left one son and two daughters ; Charles, who, although 
scarcely twenty, inherited his father's spirit, and had already distin- 
guished himself as one of the bravest in Washington's daring band ; 
the dark-eyed Ellen, now sixteen— and Maria, a bright, innocent, playful 
creature, five years of age. When the British army threatened the oc- 
cupation of Charleston, Captain Hazlewood's family removed to their 
plantation, on the main branch of the Santee, about forty miles above 
Camden. If their residence here was marked with few appearances of 
that splendour and wealth to which they had been accustomed in the 
city, it was worthy of the amiable family that made it their home. The 
neat, low, white buildings rose at a considerable distance from the 
highway, on an eminence covered with fruit and forest trees, and wild 
grape-vines, which threw their luxuriant tendrils from one to the other, 
had, in the course of years, converted the carriage-way that led from the 
gate into a continued bower. From the house, through the opening trees, 
might be seen the hills of the Santee, the meandering Catawba, and, at 
a little distance below, the road that led to the low country, as it de- 



220 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

scended a hill, and crossed the plain and river in front of the buildings. 
,At this hour the sun threw his last rays over the successive ranges of 
blue hills that rose in the west — the river lay in the vale like a broken 
thread of silver, now hid by the sycamores and red-cedars that fringed 
its banks, and now sparkling in the bright rays — the low, soft-soothing 
tones of the wood-dove and the clear magical notes of the mocking- 
bird mingled in sweet concert in the oaks, locusts, and magnolias, that 
surrounded the mansion, and every thing seemed combined to present a 
picture of perfect quietness and beauty. 

" What is the matter with you, my dear Ellen ?" said Mrs. Hazle- 
wood, alaj-med at the paleness of her daughter, who had been watching 
with intense interest the two horsemen, as they crossed the plain, and 
were now ascending the eminence on foot, with the delighted Maria 
laughing and prattling between them. 

" It is Charles, but not Arthur," replied Ellen, as she turned away 
from the window to conceal an emotion she could not suppress ; — but 
there was little time for explanation or conjecture, as at that instant the 
door opened, and Ellen was clasped to the bosom of her brother, while 
his mother shed tears of joy, as he pressed her hand. 

" My dear mother, I have the pleasure of presenting to you Cornet 
Clifford, a British officer," said Charles, as he led the stranger forward. 

" And your prisoner, you ought to have added," said Clifford, with a 
smile, as he returned the salutation of Mrs. Hazlewood. 

Charles did not notice the remark, for at the instant he was whispering 
something in Ellen's ear, which covered her face with blushes, while it 
at the same time removed an immense weight fi-om her bosom, and re- 
stored her usual sprightly cheerfulness. 

" Charles, what is the matter with your arm ?" inquired Maria, as 
she clung around her brother's neck ; and Ellen at that moment saw 
that his left arm was suspended in a military sash. 

" A scratch from such a weapon as that," he carelessly replied, point- 
ing to his sabre that hung against the wall ; " a mere accident, that sol- 
diers are every day liable to, and which might have been much worse." 

" I must be satisfied the wound is not severe," said Mrs. Hazlewood. 

'^ I appeal to my friend here, who made it," answered the young sol- 
dier, with a smile, while a shudder ran over the ladies as they glanced 
at Clifford. 

^' A mere flesh-wound, and is doing well I assure you," was the reply 
to Charles's appeal. 

''Is that man your friend?" inquired Maria, seriously; "if he could 
strike you with his sword, he shall never be my friend." 

" My sister does not understand the casuistry of war, or perceive, that 
because men are sometimes enemies, there is no necessity for their being 
always so," said Hazlewood to the officer. 

" She is quite pardonable," replied Clifford, as he kissed the reluctant 
girl J then, pulling off" a handkerchief that was tied around his head, 
said, as he pointed to a deep sabre-gash in it, " you must allow, my 
sweet girl, that since your brother cut this, he is at least as bad as I 
am." 



THE IIAZLEWOOD FAMILY. 221 

"No; you are a royalist, and an enemy to my country, and my 
brother is not/^ answered Maria. 

" Rebel to the very core,'' said Clifford, with a bitter smile, as he re- 
leased the little girl from his amis, and the conversation was turned into 
another channel. 

The fatigue of the day, added to the effect of the wound he had re- 
ceived, made it necessary for Clifford to retire at an early hour, and left 
Charles at liberty to explain the manner in which he became acquainted 
with that ofl&cer at the siege of Charleston, their meeting at the Cow- 
pens, and the desperate conflict that ensued — the wound he himself re- 
ceived, and the manner in which he fortunately disabled, disarmed, and 
made him a prisoner. 

'' And why has he come with you ?" asked Ellen. 

'^ Because he was not exchanged ; and as there was a probability that 
I should be unfit for service a month, or two, he chose, instead of fol- 
lowing the retreat of the army, to come home with me on his parole of 
honour, I being security for his appearance." 

"I do not like him; I can see in his countenance that he hates our 
cause and country ; I wish he had not come here." 

" I know, sister," said Charles, as he gayly tipped his sister's cheek, 
" that you would much rather have seen Arthur ; but he is in the pur- 
suit of glory and fame, and when he has acquired enough, he too, shall 
come and see my Ellen." 

A deep blush, which suffused with crimson the countenance of the 
beautiful Ellen, was all the reply she made to her sportive brother. 

A week, a month passed away — the wound in the head of the royal 
officer was healed, and he was able to join in all the amusements 
which Charles projected, in and out of doors. To a commanding ap- 
pearance, Cornet Clifford added a winning manner, which, when he chose, 
he could mingle with the attractive frankness of a soldier, and even the 
republican Maria began to regard him with less dislike than she at first 
felt. By carefully avoiding all mention of topics that might give pain, 
he succeeded in securing the favourable opinion of Mrs. Hazlewood ; but, 
in spite of his endeavours to please, there was one of the family that 
continued to regard him with distrust and aversion. That one was the 
lovely Ellen, who could not help fancying that, through the polished and 
gentlemanlike exterior he assumed, she could discover traces of the 
unprincipled villain — the profligate libertine. Though he strove with 
all the art of which he was master to anake a favourable impression 
upon her heart, to his mortification he found she was invulnerable, and 
while he was in his heart cherishing the most dishonourable intentions, 
he found himself more and more fascinated by her charms. Still there 
was in his language and in his eye that which alarmed Ellen and induced 
her, while she avoided him as much as possible, to hint her dislike to 
her brother. 

'' Give yourself no uneasiness about this royalist," said Charles. " To 
speak, ay, or to think disrespectfully of you, shall be as much as his 
head is worth." 

Clifford was a man. too well versed in duplicity to excite needless 

i2 



222 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

alarm, whatever black designs he might meditate. The younger son of 
a respectable English family, he had chosen the army for a profession; 
and, attached to the light troops under Tarleton, none was more dis- 
tinguished for his bravery, or his unbounded licentiousness. From the 
moment he saw the beautiful Ellen Hazlewood, he had marked her for 
his victim, and his resolution did not falter when he saw she was the 
pride of her brother and the loved one of all around her. He knew 
that he was disliked by her, and he exulted in the thought that while 
he humbled the proud girl, a deep blow would be struck at the happi- 
ness of some of the sturdiest rebels in Carolina. In the midst of his 
plans, however, he received a notice of his exchange, and a summon to 
join Lord Rawdon at Camben. Charles, although his arm was not en- 
tirely healed, was unwilling, at the pi'ospect of active service, to remain 
idle, and, soon after Clifford departed, hastened to join his corps under 
Washington. In the rapid succession of marches and countermarches, 
skirmishes and battles that ensued, Clifford, though he did not forget the 
prize he was still determined to possess, found no time for maturing his 
projects — and a blow from the sabre of another of Washington's troopers, 
at the hard-fought battle of the Eutaw Springs, at once banished the re- 
collection of Ellen, and every thing else, from his head for a while. In 
that struggle, Colonel Washington was wounded, and fell into the hands 
of the royalists, and, in a furious onset to rescue him, young Hazlewood's 
horse was killed under him, and he shared the fate of his superior, by 
being made a prisoner. When, after the lapse of two days, Clifford 
recovered his reason, and found that Charles was a prisoner, and in his 
power, his joy was unbounded; for, by having him at his disposal, he 
felt certain of being able to subdue the high-souled and virtuous Ellen ; 
and the breathing-time the royal army enjoyed after that battle, gave 
him an opportunity of putting his nefarious plans in a train of execution. 
Tarleton, who comprehended the nature of his designs, if not the parti- 
culars of the plan, granted him permission to leave the army for a few 
days, and, with two tory citizens of the State for his instruments, he 
departed in disguise for the neighbourhood of his victim. 

It was late in the evening when a stranger knocked at Mrs. Hazle- 
wood's and made himself known as a bearer of a message from Charles, 
informing them that he had been severely wounded, and was a prisoner, 
and entreated, as a favour, that Ellen would visit him before his death, 
which, under the guidance of the messenger, he assured her she might do 
in safety. The man produced a passport from Cornwallis, and played 
the part assigned him so well, that not a suspicion passed the mind of 
Ellen or her mother ; and, although she was sensible of the dangerous 
nature of the undertaking, her love for her brother did not permit her to 
hesitate — and as soon as some refreshment had been provided for the 
messenger, and she had made a few hurried preparations, they set out. 
They had not ridden many miles before day began to break, and while 
they were joined by another horseman who appeared to be travelling the 
same road with themselves, Ellen's suspicions were excited by the pains 
her guide took to avoid those places where their appearance might have 
attracted notice. Some trifling reasons were assigned for this course, and 



THE HAZLEWOOD FAMILY. 223 

it was not until the forenoon was far advanced, and they paused for the 
first time at a small log-hut in a thick pine-wood, that Ellen's fears were 
converted into reality, by the appearance of the detested Clifford to assist 
her in alighting. Ellen rejected his offered hand, and entered the hut. 
A chill of horror passed over her as she saw, from its desolate appear- 
ance, that it was uninhabited, and the full conviction that she was in 
the power of a villain flashed upon her mind. 

"Where is my brother ?" demanded Ellen, turning to Clifford. 

" Your brother is not here ; but you shall soon have the pleasure of 
seeing him, and that, too, safe and well." 

" Safe and well !" repeated Ellen, fixing a searching look on the royal 
officer, who met it unmoved. 

"Yes, dearest Ellen, both, though a prisoner; forgive me, Ellen," he 
continued, as he attempted to take her hand, " if to obtain the company 
of one I shall ever love, I have been compelled to resort to stratagem ; 
and allow me to hope the sight of your brother will not be the less 
welcome because obtained through my means." 

" My brother needs not my presence under such eii'cumstances, and I 
must insist on being permitted to return immediately to my home," re- 
plied the undaunted girl. 

" No, Miss Hazlewood, I cannot part with you so easily ; but you 
may rely upon the word of an officer and a gentleman, that in the camp 
of his majesty's troops, you shall be perfectly safe." 

Ellen's remonstrances were unavailing, and she was compelled to 
proceed ; and, while treated with much respect by Clifford, she trembled 
for the result. Once with her brother, she determined to appeal to 
Clifford's superiors, confident they would never refuse protection to inno- 
cence, or fail to deliver her from the power of a man she believed capa- 
ble of any enormity. 

During the journey, and after their arrival at the little village in which 
the royal army was encamped, Clifford saw that nothing was wanting to 
make Ellen's situation as agreeable as possible, although it was easy for 
her to see that she was under the strict surveillance. She found her 
brother not only a prisoner, but, to her surprise, in close custody; 
and, when she remonstrated with Clifford on the subject, and reminded 
him of the treatment he had experienced when in her brother's power, 
he answered that circumstances he could not then explain rendered 
such a measure necessary. She was not permitted to see him, except 
in the presence of Clifford or one of the guard. 

Though Clifford had now succeeded in getting Ellen within his 
clutches, the difficulties in his way, he found, were not all overcome. She 
refused to listen for a moment to his fine-spun falsehoods — she treated 
his professions of love with contempt, and his offers of marriage with 
indignant silence. The building in which Clifford resided, and which 
served as a prison for both Charles and Ellen, was at a little distance 
from any other, although considerably within the line of sentries and 
outposts around the British camp. There was a fine garden attached to 
it, and in this, as a mark of particular favour, Ellen, accompanied by 
her female attendant, was allowed to walk; the high-picketed fence 



224 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

being deemed a sufficient security against any attempts at escape. One 
raild evening, just as the sun was setting, Ellen and her servant ob- 
served an old woman on the outside of the garden, who appeared to be 
waiting their nearer approach. '' It's Peggy McFarland,'' said the girl, 
as Ellen inquired whether she knew her; ''and she lives by furnishing 
the officers of his majesty with such vegetables as they will purchase 
and she can procure." 

As they came up to the enclosure, Ellen perceived she had some clusters 
of wild-flowers and sweet-smelling herbs, which she oifered to sell to 
them. In the one, which, in consideration of a few pence, she handed 
to Miss Hazlewood, the latter observed her slip a small piece of paper; 
and, while the eyes of the attendant were directed another way by the 
woman, Ellen managed to read as follows : — " You are in the power of 
a villain, but despair not — your motions are watched by those who will 
save you at every hazard j trust in Heaven, be firm, and you are safe." 
This scrap of paper was signed " A. L. ;" and, with emotions which 
almost overcame her, Ellen, having first flung the woman another piece 
of money, and told her, when she had any thing else to sell, she should 
be glad to see her, followed the attendant to the house. She found 
Clifford within, who requested a few minutes' conversation with her. 
Ellen seated herself in silence. 

" It has fallen to my lot to be the bearer of unpleasant tidings at 
this time," said he, as he seated himself near her. You have not, I pre- 
sume, seen your brother to-day ?" 

" No : he told me, yesterday, that he was to appear before a court- 
martial as a matter of form, preparatory to his discharge from confine- 
ment ; and I have been hourly expecting to be called to him." 

" You remember that your brother was one of the garrison of Charles- 
ton, and made a prisoner at the surrender of that city ?" 

''■ Yes, perfectly well." 

" You may also remember, that, after remaining in the royal camp 
for some time, and gaining all the information possible, he forfeited his 
parole of honour, and, by bribing the sentry, made his esca.pe." 

" I remember no such thing, nor do I believe Charles would have 
been guilty of so dishonourable an act," replied Ellen, with spirit. 

Clifford was unmoved. " You have not^ my dear Ellen, made suffi- 
cient allowance for the pressure of circumstances. Much as I respect 
your brother's bravery and honour, I am compelled, by the decision of 
the court-martial, to believe the charge was correct." 

" Charles will defend his honour with his Jfe," said Ellen. 

"■ In the field, he undoubtedly w,ould, but I am obliged to say there is 
little chance of his ever again joining his rebel countrymen." 

*'AVhat am I to understand by these words?" said Ellen, turning 
pale. 

" This is a subject on which I would willingly avoid explanation, but" 
■ — he hesitated. 

''Keep me not in suspense, I can bear the worst," eagerly interrupted 
Elton. 



THE HAZLEWOOD FAMILY. 225 

" You must be sensible, my dear girl/' he proceeded, tbat such a viola- 
tion of the laws of war could not be overlooked. The fortune of war 
threw your brother into our hands, as well as several others, equally cul- 
pable. It was deemed necessary to make an example; lots were cast, 
and it fell upon your brother." 

" And the penalty is death !" said Ellen, in a voice which emotion 
rendered scarcely audible." 

^atis." 

" Oh, my mother !" was all that the distressed girl could utter for 
some minutes. At last, she collected strength to inquire whether there 
was no hope for him. 

" I fear not," was the reply. " The case is clear, and it is the opinion 
of the court that an example is indispensable, though all regret that it 
should have fallen on so young and gallant an officer as Lieutenant 
Hazlewood." 

" You can save him — jou will save him — you will not see him die 
for such a trifle — remember, he saved your life." 

" I am sorry to say," replied Clifford, coldly, " that all my influence 
has already been exerted in his favour, but in vain." 

"Do not despair — plead for his sake — for my mother's — for my own 
— they cannot refuse to hear you." 

" Though I fear it will be useless, I shall comply with your wishes ; 
but it must be on the condition that, if I am successful, you will grant 
me one favour — one request." 

" Ask any thing — any thing consistent with honour — any thing a sis- 
ter's love, a sister's gratitude can perform and it shall be done," ex- 
claimed the fair girl in breathless eagerness." 

" It is said in few words ; you must consent to be mine I" 

Ellen, in the earnestness of her entreaty, had drawn towards him — her 
graceful neck was bent forwards — her dark eyes, in which were tears 
trembling, were fixed — fixed anxiously upon Clifford, to catch the least 
words of hope he might utter ; but, when she heard his reply, she re- 
coiled as though she had suddenly trod upon a rattlesnake, and, with a 
shudder, exclaimed — "Never, never!" 

" Ellen," said Clifford, in a tone of assumed indifference, " in this 
affair I shall not attempt to influence your feelings — you will see your 
brother, and it will be for you to say whether he lives or dies." So say- 
ing, he left her, and she was soon summoned to the chamber in which 
Charles was confined. 

The sentinel who was s^^tioned at the door, had, it was evident, re- 
ceived his instructions, for he allowed Ellen to pass without a question 
— and, while the door was bolted behind her, she found herself in the 
arras of Charles and pressed to his bosom. 

" Ellen," said he, " I must die. The influence of a few cowardly 
tories has been too much for innocence ; and though I would willingly 
have lived for the sake of my mother, my sisters, my country, yet, thank 
Heaven, I fear not death." 

Ellen's heart sank within her; she could not see a brother so young, 
so full of bright hopes and high expectations, go down to the grave, 



226 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

when, by sacrificing herself, she could save him to her family and her 
country. Her resolution was instantly taken : — " No, Charles, you must 
not, you shall not die — another victim will be found." 

Charles looked her wildly in the face, for a moment, as if he would 
read her inmost soul: "Accursed wretch!" he exclaimed, "I see the 
whole. That villain, Cliiford, has procured my condemnation, and thinks 
by playing with my love of life, to obtain you on his own terms — but 
I would sooner be drawn in quarters than live to see you the slave — 
the wife — of that vile man." 

" Do not, my dear brother, talk so wildly ; you know not what a sister's 
love will enable her to endure : think of your mother" — 

"Not another word, Ellen, if you love me; my mind is made up; if 
they choose to put me to death, God will avenge my blood, and ^my 
friends I leave to the care of Heaven. That hypocrite dared to hint to 
me the terms on which my life might be spared — they were rejected 
with disdain ; they will ever be rejected." 

The distressed girl was aware that expostulation was useless; she 
could only pray that Heaven would avert the threatened evil; and, the 
hour having expired, she was summoned by the sentry to leave the 
chamber. 

" I shall see you once more," said Charles, as he kissed his sister, and 
led her to the door ; " and then, at to-morrow's sunset, I shall show them 
how a rebel can die." 

Ellen, at a late hour, retired to her room, but not to sleep ; and, after 
passing the night in framing a thousand resolutions to save her brother, 
she rose early in the morning, to refresh her wearied spirits by a walk 
in her favourite garden. The sun was rising clear and bright ; all the 
various and confused sounds of a large encampment — the rattle of drums, 
the neighing of chargers, the hasty galloping of horses, and the march 
' of guards to relieve the outposts — all mingled at once, and gave an air 
of life and activity to the scene, that ill accorded with the state of 
dejection under which Ellen laboured. Grladly would she have met the 
old woman again, that she might have communicated to her the perilous 
situation of her brother; but she too, Ellen thought, had deserted her, 
and again she summoned all her fortitude to meet the evils she consi- 
dered inevitable. 

In the course of the forenoon, the detested Clifford entered Ellen's 
apartment, and, seating himself, inquired, " Whether she had made a 
decision on his proposal." 

" My brother has," she answered, for her tongue refused to utter a 
word from which might be inferred an unwillingness to save her brother, 
whatever might be the price. 

" Very well, and what says he ?" 

"He refuses life on such terms." 

" Obstinate fool!" exclaimed Clifford, forgetting his usual coolness and 
caution. " He may die, if he chooses, but it shall avail you nothing; yes, 
he shall die to-night, and, before to-morrow's sun rises, you are mine, and 
that on my own terms — remember, it will be on my own terms." 

Ellen trembled, when she saw the expression of ferocious licentious- 



THE HAZLEWOOD FAMILY. . 227 

ness his countenance assumed ; but she replied not. Her eyes were down- 
cast, her head was bowed on her white hand; and when, after a moment, 
as she heard the door close, she raised her eyes and wiped away the 
tears that almost blinded her, to her great relief she saw that she was 
left alone. 

Never, to Ellen and Charles, did a day appear to haste away with such 
fearful rapidity; and, as the evening came on, the latter could plainly 
see from his window the praparations making for his execution. It was 
an inexpressibly bitter moment. Life, with its ten thousand charms, 
the claims of his mother and sisters — and, more than all, those of his 
country — came over his mind with such painful distinctness, that he 
wept ; and, had Ellen then repeated her offer that she had before made, 
he might have lived. It was but a moment, however, and the proud 
consciousness of innocence and reliance on the justice of his country 
enabled him to rise above his fears and his regrets. 

The place selected for his execution was on the verge of an open pine- 
wood, at a little distance from the garden-walls ; and as the discending 
sun cast his last yellow rays on the green tree-tops, the roll of the muf- 
fled drum, and the slow and heavy tread of the troops that had been 
drawn out for the occasion, announced to the prisoner that his hour had 
come ; and, surrounded by bayonets, he proceeded to the designated 
place. The grave was already dug, and as it was evidently the wish of 
the royal officers to make as deep an impression as possible by the death 
of the rebel, however unjust his sentence might have been, the ground 
was thronged by an immense multitude, both of citizens and soldiers who 
were not on duty. When Charles arrived, a deep and suppressed mur- 
mur ran through the crowd, but this expression of pity was instantly 
silenced by the guard. The file of men were drawn up for his execution; 
a venerable clergymen had administered the consolations of religion, 
and he was directed to kneel to meet his fate. To do this, or to be 
blindfolded, young Hazlewood refused, and, with his arms folded on his 
bosom, stood motionless as a statue. 

The fatal moment had almost arrived, when the gate of the garden 
opened, and Clifford, with the pale and beautiful Ellen on his arm, was 
observed approaching. Passing through the guard, who stood with their 
arms at rest, Ellen no sooner saw Charles than she threw herself into 
his arms, and, with all that passionate eloquence which belongs to woman, 
besought him to live. 

''That you may become the slave and victim of Clifford's vile pas- 
sions ?" said he, in a tone which reached only her ear. 

" Grod ! No, never !" she hastily exclaimed ; " but when you are 
safe, I can die, and my" — 

" I know what you would say, my dear sister," said Charles, tenderly 
kissing her, as he interrupted her words ; " but I must not hear them 
now. Heaven will bless and keep you — farewell ! Then, releasing her 
from his arms, he turned to the officer of the guard, and said, in a voice 
firm as when in his father's house, "I am ready." 

But the fearless girl clasped her arms around his neck, and, placing 
herself between her brother and the file of men, declared she would 



228 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

die witli him. It was in vain tliat Charles remonstrated ; she was im- 
movable. 

'' Tear them apart !" cried Clifford, to two or three of his ready mi- 
nions. '' Tear them apart I" he sternly repeated, as he saw that reluctance 
was evinced, and that all around were sensibly afi'ected by the spectacle 
of generosity and aiFection before them. 

The peremptory tone in which he spoke had the effect of rousing the 
attention of some of his followers, and the rough hands of two or three 
of the soldiers were already on the fair girl, when a sudden shout 
was heard on the verge of the wood, mingled with a scream, as the senti- 
nel of that place was cut down, and, in an instant, the terrible cry of 
" The rebels ? — the rebels I" was echoed from every quarter. All eyes 
were instantly turned to a party of horsemen, which had burst from the 
wood, and, with their sabres flashing around their heads, were bearing 
down all before them like a torrent. They stayed not to kill : those of 
the multitude who could not get out of the way were trampled beneath 
the feet of their horses, and, before Clifford could credit the evidence of 
his senses, the fiery horsemen, which were instantly known as a part of 
V/^ashington's daring band, were upon him. Jammed together by the 
rush of the crowd, the guard could make no resistance ; they were swept 
away by the torrent — and a blow from the sabre of Arthur Lee cleft 
Clifford's head to his shoulders, and cut short the order which was 
on his lips : " Shoot the damned" — an order which was intended to 
insure the destruction of both Charles and his sister. What had passed 
was the work of a moment — in another, Charles was mounted on a fresh 
horse, the half-insensible Ellen was in Lee's arms, and the whole party 
disappeared by the same route and as rapidly as they had advanced. So 
daring was the attack, that the British legion, of which the fallen Clifford 
was an officer, and which was instantly under arms, conceiving it impos- 
sible that so hazardous an exploit would be attempted, unless backed by 
a formidable force, lost so much time in reconnoitring, that, aided by 
his superior knowledge of the country, Lee and his rescued friends got 
off safe, and without losing a man. 

The remainder of our narrative mayieasily be conjectured. No sooner 
had the surrender of Cornwallis secured the independence of America, 
than Charles and Arthur hastened to the happy quiet of their home, 
where the union of the highminded and heroic Lee, with the beautiful 
and constant Ellen Hazlewood united in still closer ties these respect- 
able families. Happy in the love and respect of all around them, with 
a consciousness that the smiles of an approving Heaven were over them — 
Arthur and Ellen long enjoyed the pleasure of seeing their country free 
and prosperous ; and, in the bliss of the present, forgot the dangers and 
privations of the past. W. G. 

ON SOME SNOW THAT MELTED ON A LADY's BREAST. 

Those envious flakes came doTrn in haste, 

To prove her breast less fair ; 
But, grieved to find themselves suvpass'd, 

Dissolved into a tear. 



JOE HAYNES, THE COMEDIAN. 229 



JOE HAYNES, THE COMEDIAN. 



The life of Joe Haynes, as he was familiarly called, is a curious 
medley. Born of obscure parents in Westminster, the brilliant talents 
which he displayed at St. Martin's school, induced several liberal gentle- 
roen to join in sending him to Oxford, where he completed his education. 
He was next employed by Sir Joseph Williamson, then member for that 
university, who, on becoming one of the ministry, made him his private 
secretary. Being, however, rather indiscreet in talking to his com- 
panions of the secrets of office, he was again restored to Oxford, where 
he took the degree of master of arts. But his native turn for the stage 
became irresistible upon the appearance of a strolling company in that 
city. He joined them, and wandered with them for some time through 
the country. In due course, he obtained an engagement at Drury Lane, 
where he was raised to the pinnacle of fame by his performance of Bayes, 
in the Rehearsal. He thus won the patronage of its author, the Duke 
of Buckingham, who took him in his suit when he went upon his embassy 
to France, and treated him in every respect as a pleasant companion. 
Haynes became enamoured of his, new situation, and was delighted with 
the French, to whom his volatile manners were particularly acceptable. 
So, when the Duke returned to England, Joe set up in the world as a count, 
and lived for some months upon borrowed money in great splendour. But, 
his resources at length exhausted, he was obliged to fly, and returned to 
the London stage, where he was exceedingly well received. He now figured 
as a dancer, but, growing tired of flinging his legs about, he had again re- 
course to the borrowing system; but that again failing, he turned fortune- 
teller. Having been sent by Hart to Paris, for the purpose of gaining 
some insight into the machinery of the French stage, Joe spent, before 
leaving London, all the money that was given to him for his expenses : 
he went to Paris, however, raising the wind on the way, as secretary to 
the Duke of Monmouth, engaged upon an important confidential mis- 
sion ! But the ci-devant count was recognised by his creditors there, and 
he was obliged to decamp, as ignorant of French dramatic machinery 
as he was when he left England. One or two anecdotes, connected with 
this incident in Joe's career, are highly amusing. 

Hart, who was a person of respectable conduct, and had not been too 
well pleased with Joe's negotiations in France, and with his having 
squandered so much money, in Paris, to no purpose, had some natural 
anger against him, and this was cause enough for Joe to cherish spite in 
return. In the play of Cataline's Conspiracy, acted about this time, a 
great number of senators of Bome were wanted, and Hart made Joe one, 
although his salary, being fifty shillings a week, freed him from any 
obligations to accept the dignity. Joe, however, after some symptoms of 
rebellion, complied. He got a scaramouch dress, a large full rufi", made 
himself whiskers from ear to ear, put on his head a merry-andrew's cap, 
u 



230 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

and, with a short pipe in his mouth, bearing a three-legged stool in his 
hand, he followed Hart on the stage, set himself down behind him, and 
began to laugh and point at him. This ludicrous figure put the whole 
theatre in a roar of laughter. Hart, who was a man of such self-pos- 
session and equanimity that, happen what might, he never discomposed 
himself, continued his part without being aware of his behaviour, won- 
dering, however, at the seemingly unaccountable mirth. At last, hap- 
pening to turn his head, he beheld Joe, and in great wrath instantly 
made his exit, swearing he never would set his foot on the stage again, 
unless Joe was instantly dismissed. Joe was accordingly sent off, but, 
nothing down-hearted, he instantly joined a company of strollers at 
Greenwich, where he acted and danced for some time, but, tiring soon, 
he lampooned them all and came to London. 

Joe had not forgotten that Hart had been the cause of his dismissal, 
and resolved to be revenged ; accordingly, as he was one day walking 
in the streets, he met a parson of an odd, simple appearance, whom 
he accosted in a friendly manner, as if they had been formerly ac- 
quainted, although he had never seen him before, and they adjourned 
together to a tavern, where the parson informed Joe that he had been 
chaplain to the ship Monke, but was then in lack of employment. Joe 
expressed great satisfaction at hearing the news, as it was in his power. 
to help him to a place of sixty pounds a year, bed, board, and washing, 
besides gifts at Christmas and Easter, only for officiating one hour in the 
four and twenty, from nine to ten o'clock in the forenoon. The marine 
priest was delighted, and, returning his warmest thanks, entreated Joe 
to inform him of the particulars. Upon which Joe told him that his 
name was Haynes, and that he would make him chaplain to the play- 
house. 

'' Against to-morrow," said Joe, "I would have you provide your- 
self with a bell, and there is half-a-crown to buy one ; and, at nine 
o'clock, go to the play-house and ring your bell, and call them all to 
prayers, saying, in an audible voice, ' Players, come to prayers ! players, 
come to prayers.' This you must do, lest they mistake you for the 
dustman, both bells being so much alike. But there is one that I par- 
ticularly desire you to take care of j on the third door on the left, lives 
one Mr. Hart ; that gentleman, whether he be delirious or frantic, or 
whether he be possessed of some notions of atheism, if you mention 
prayers, will laugh at you, perhaps swear, curse, and abuse you. If it 
proceed from the first, the poor unhappy gentleman ought to be pitied ; 
but if from the latter, he shall quit the house, for I will never suffer 
such wickedness in any play-house where I am concerned ; and do, my 
good sir, let it be your earnest endeavour to find out the cause, and, by 
your ghostly exhortations, to remove the effects ; — such weeds must not 
be permitted to grow in a vineyard where you are the gardener ; abuse 
you must expect, but your reward will be a great gain : go to his house 
and oblige him to come along with you to prayers." 

Being thus advised, the parson, after a parting cup, withdrew and 
bought tlie bell. 

Next morning, according to orders, his reverence went to the theatre^ 



JOE HAYNES, THE COMEDIAN. 231 

ringing his bell, and calling aloud, " Players, come to prayers I players, 
come to prayers I" Finding Hart's door open, he went in, bawling, 
" Players, come to prayers." Hart came down in a violent passion, and 
demanded to know why he was so disturbed. 

The parson replied, " Players, come to prayers !" 

Hart, seeing no help, bridled his passion, and said "that he wondered 
that a gentleman of his gown and seeming sense could make himself 
so ridiculous." The parson looked at him with an eye of doubt, then 
rang his bell again, and bawled at the pitch of his voice, " Players, come 
to prayers !" Hart, in desperation, now began to swear ; but the other 
informed him, " I have been told of your cursing and swearing, and 
atheistical blasphemies ; but, nevertheless, I will do my duty ;" and 
accordingly laid hands on Hart to drag him away, exclaiming, " Players, 
come to prayers !" 

At this new absurdity, Hart began to suspect that his reverence was 
mad, or that some trick was played upon him, and asked him to walk 
into his room, when, after they had drunk a cup of sack together, the 
parson told the whole story of his engagement. The poor man was 
soon undeceived ; the story, taking wings, reached the ears of King 
Charles, who was so mightily pleased with the joke, that he sent for 
Joe, and had him reinstated in the theatre. 

This was not all. A scene followed that would have cut a capital 
figure in the part of Boh Acres. The son of the deceived parson, who 
was reputed to be a dangerous swordsman, and conducted himself in 
consec|uenee as a swaggering bully, declared that he must have satisfac- 
tion for the insult which Haynes had offered his father. Meeting Joe 
in the street, they came to high words, and adjourned to a tavern to end 
the dispute. Before they fell to fighting, Joe required a few minutes to 
say his prayers, for which purpose he adjourned to an adjacent room, 
where, in language sufficiently loud to be heard by his opponent, he 
fervently sought forgiveness for having killed seventeen men in difierent 
duels, and for being about to add another to that formidable number. 
The parson's son was perfectly satisfied, and took to his heels without 
farther ceremony. 

Joe, in his most eccentric course, next figured as Sign or Salmatius, (a 
mountebank, according to his report, celebrated all over Europe,) and 
proceeded into the country, attended by a numerous retinue of tumblers 
and dancers. His adventures in this new capacity are of the most lu- 
dicrous description, as indeed are all those in which he is subsequently 
concerned, he being at one time obliged to enlist as a soldier, now re- 
suming the sock, now figuring as a dancer, in which quality we find him 
at Florence, teaching the grand-duke's family j now acting the great 
count once more, and that, too, under the auspices of the Pope of Rome, 
who had his portrait painted. Returning to England, he next became 
successively an attorney, a puritan, and a quaker, and, finally, died an 
actor. 



232 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



MAJOR ANDUE. 



In the year 1780, G-eneral Arnold, who from his rank and talents had 
been in great favour with the Americans, quitted their ranks, and joined 
the British army. This, though a valuable acquisition, was too dearly 
purchased by the degradation and death of the brave and amiable Major 
Andre, who volunteered his services to make arrangements with Arnold 
on the occasion. By some accident, Major Andre was compelled to re- 
main disguised within the American lines all night, and nest morning 
was discovered, after he had passed them, on his way to New York. He 
was seized, confined, tried, and sentenced to be hanged as a spy, notwith- 
standing every remonstrance that could be urged against it. An Ame- 
rican captain, and a Lieutenant Bowman, of the republican army, were 
selected as his guard the day before his execution. The latter oiScer, 
who died in 1818, describes Major Andre as maintaining the utmost 
firmness and composure ; so much so, that when his attendants were 
silent and melancholy, he would, by some cheerful remark, endeavour 
to dispel the gloom. 

Although not a murmur nor a sigh escaped him, his composure was 
the result, not of the want of sensibility, or a disregard of life, but of 
those proud and lofty feelings, the characteristics of true greatness of 
mind, which raise the soul above the influence of events, and enable the 
soldier, with unfaltering nerve and steady eye, to meet death, in what- 
ever form it may approach him ; for in his sleep, nature would play her 
part ; and home and friends — his country and his fame — his sisters and 
his love, would steal upon his heart, contrasting their fancied pleasures 
with his certain pain, and render his dreams disturbed, and his sleep 
fitful and troubled. 

Early in the morning, the liour of his execution was announced. His 
countenance did not alter. His servant, on entering the room, burst into 
tears. " Leave me," said he to him with great sternness, "■ until you 
can behave more manfully." The breakftist was furnished from the 
table of General Washington. He ate as usual, then shaved and dressed 
himself; placed his hat upon the table, and cheerfully said, '' I am ready 
at any moment, gentlemen, to wait upon you." 

Lieutenant Bowman described it as being a day of settled melancholy, 
and that Major Andre was, apparently, the least affected. To Grene- 
ral Washington it was a trial of excruciating pain. It was with great 
difBculty that he placed his name to the warrant of his execution. 

Captain and Lieutenant Bowman walked arm-in-arm with Major 

Andre. It is well known that he had solicited to be shot ; and it was 
not until he came within sight of the gallows, that he knew the manner 
of his death. " It is too much," said he, momentarily shrinking. '< I 
nad hoped," added he, recovering himself, " that it might have been 
otherwise ; but I pray you to bear witness that I die like a soldier." 



MR. OGILVIE. 233 



MR. OGILVIE. 

Mr. Ogilvie, formerly so well known in Virginia as a supporter of 
the Grodwenian philosophy, conceiving a vehement desire to see the West- 
ern country, set oif from Richmond, for Lexington, in Kentucky. It 
was in the month of October, after a most lonely and wearisome day's 
ride, that, a little before suiaset, he came to a small cabin on the road, 
and, fearing he should find no other opportunity of procuring refreshment 
for himself and his jaded horse, he stopped and inquired if he could be 
accommodated for the night. An old woman, the only person he saw, 
civilly answering him in the affirmative, he gladly alighted, and going in 
to a tolerable fire, enjoyed the luxury of rest, while his hostess was dis- 
charging the duties of ostler and cook. In no long time, she set before 
him a supper of comfortable, but homely fare, of which, having liberally 
partaken, and giving divers significant nods, the old woman remarked, 
she " expected" he " chose bed," and, pointing to one which stood in 
the corner of the room, immediately went into the yard awhile, to give 
him an opportunity of undressing. Before he had been long in bed, and 
while he was congratulating himself on his good fortune, the latch of the 
door was drawn, and there entered a dark-looking man, of gigantic stature 
and form, with stiff, black hair, eyebrows, and beard. He was apparently 
about eight-and-twenty, was dressed in a brown hunting shirt, which 
partly concealed a pair of dirty buckskin overalls, and he wore moccasins 
of the same material. Mr. 0. thought he had never seen any thing half 
so ferocious. As soon as this man entered the room, his mother, for so 
she proved to be, pointing to the bed, motioned him to make no noise ; 
on which, with inaudible steps, he walked to the chimney, put his gun 
upon a rude rack provided for that and other arms, and sat softly down 
to the fire, then throwing a bright blaze around the room. 

Our traveller, not liking the looks of the new-comer, and not caring to 
be teazed by conversation, drew his head under the bed-clothes, so 
that he could see what was passing, without leaving his own face visible. 
The two soon entered into conversation, but in so low a voice, that Mr. 
O. could not distinguish what was said. His powers of attention were 
wrought up to the most painful pitch of intensity. At length, the man, 
looking towards the bed, made some remark to his mother, to which Mr. 
O. heard her reply, " No, I hardly think he's asleep yet," — and they 
again conversed in a low voice, as before. After a short interval, while 
the man sat with his feet stretched out towards the fire, on which he was 
intently gazing — 

'• Don't you think he's asleep now ?" he was heard to say. 

" Stop,'^ says she, " I'll go and see;" and, moving near the bed, under 
the pretext of taking something from a small table, she approached so 
near as to see the face of our traveller, whose eyes were indeed closed, 
but who was any thing but asleep. On her return to the fireplace, she 
said, "Yes, he's fast asleep now." 

On this, the mountaineer, rising from his stool, reached up to the rack, 
u2 



234 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

and, taking down, with his right hand, an old greasy cutlass, walked with 
the same noiseless step towards the traveller's bed, and, stretching out the 
other hand, at the moment that Mr. 0. was about to implore his pity, 
took down a venison ham which hung on the wall near the head of the 
bed, walked softly back to the fire, and began to slice some pieces for 
his supper; and Mr. 0., who lay more dead than alive, and whose 
romantic fancy heightened the terrors of all he saw, had the unspeaka- 
ble gratification to find that these kind-hearted children of the forest had 
been talking low, and that the hungry hunter, who had eaten nothing 
since the morning, had forborne making a noise, lest they should inter- 
rupt the slumbers of their wayworn guest. The next day, Mr. 0., who 
was an enthusiast in physiognomy, discovered remarkable benevolence in 
the features of the hunter, which, by the false and deceitful glare of the 
fire-light, had escaped him, and in his recital of this adventure, which 
furnished him with a favourite occasion of exercising his powers of decla- 
mation to great advantage, in a matter of real life, he often declared that 
he had never taken a more refreshing night's rest, or made a more grate- 
ful repast, than he had done in this humble cottage. 

We cannot forbear to add that the subject of our memoir was reserved 
for a different, though not less tragical fate, than that which seemed 
here to threaten him. After having been an object of criticism or ad- 
miration, as a professed rhetorician and declaimer, in all the principal 
cities of the Union— after trying his oratorical powers in the Surrey In- 
stitute — after encountering, in various forms, disappointment, obloquy, 
and, to use one of his own alliterations, the miseries of debt and desti- 
tution, he became heir to a title and a large estate, in Scotland, and, 
unable either to do without the use of opium, or to bear that deteriora- 
tion of the faculties which its habitual use superinduced, he very soon 
afterwards put an end to his weary existence, by a pistol. 



The following eloquent and beautiful extract is from " the Village 
Graveyard," written by the Kev. Mr. Greenwood, of Boston : 

I never shun a graveyard — the thoughtful melancholy which it in- 
spires is grateful rather than disagreeable to me ; it gives me no pain to 
tread on the green roof of that dark mansion, whose chambers I must 
occupy so soon — and I often wander from choice to a place where there 
is neither solitude nor society. Something human is there — but the folly, 
the bustle, the vanities, the pretensions, the competitions, the pride of 
humanity are gone — men are there, but the passions are hushed, and 
their spirits are still — malevolence has lost its power of harming, appe- 
tite is sated, ambition lies low, and lust is cold ; anger has done raving, 
all disputes are ended, all revelry is over, the fellest animosity is deeply 
buried, and the most dangerous sins are safely confined by the thickly 
piled clods of the valley ; vice is dumb and powerless, and virtue is 
waiting in silence for the trump of the archangel and the voice of 
God. 



GENERAL PUTNAM. — TIME. 235 



GENEEAL PUTNAM 

Is known to have been decidedly opposed to duelling, on principle. 
It once happened that he grossly affronted a brother officer. The dis- 
pute arose at a wine-table, and the officer demanded instant reparation. 
Putnam, being a little elevated, expressed his willingness to accommo- 
date the gentleman with a fight ; and it was stipulated that the duel 
should take place on the following morning, and that they should fight 
without seconds. At the appointed time, the officer advanced to the 
ground, armed with sword and pistols. On entering the field, Putnam, 
who had taken a stand at the opposite extremity, and at a distance of 
about thirty rods, levelled his musket, and fired at him. The gentleman 
now ran towards his antagonist, who deliberately proceeded to reload his 
gun. 

" What are you about to do 1" exclaimed he ; " is this the conduct 
of an American officer and a man of honour ?" 

" What are i/ou about to do ?" exclaimed the general, attending only 
to the first question ; " a pretty question to put to a man whom you in- 
tended to murder. I'm about to kill you, and if you don't beat a retreat 
in less time than 'twould take old Heath to hang a tory, you are a gone 
dog;" at the same time retui'ning his ramrod to its place, and throwing 
the breech of his gun into the hollow of his shoulder. 

This intimation was too unequivocal to be misunderstood; and our 
valorous duellist turned and fled for life. 



TIME. 

Ninety years hence, not a single man or woman, now twenty years 
of age, will be alive. Ninety years ! Alas! how many of the lively 
actors at present on the stage of life will make their exit long ere ninety 
years shall have rolled away ! And could we be sure of ninety years, 
•what are they ? "A tale that is told ;" a dream ; an empty sound, that 
passeth on the wings of the wind away, and is forgotten. Years shorten 
as man advances in age. Like the degrees in longitude, man's life de- 
clines as he travels towards the frozen pole, until it dwindles to a point 
and vanishes for ever. Is it possible that life is of so short duration ! 
Will ninety years erase all the golden names over the doors in town and 
country, and substitute others in their stead ? Will all the new bloom- 
ing beauties fade and disappear, all the pride and passion, the love, hope, 
and joy, pass away in ninety years and be forgotten ? — " Ninety years !" 
says Death ; " do you think I shall wait ninety years ? Behold, to-day, 
and to-morrow, and every day is mine. When ninety years are past, 
this generation will have mingled with the dust and be remembered 
not." 



236 riELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 



MATERNAL AFFECTION. 

What other friend has watched, like a mother, over the helpless and 
uneasy hours of sickness — borne with its petulance — ministered to its 
infirmities — soothed its pains, and smoothed its feverish pillow ? Where 
are the friends of our prosperity when ''the evil days come, and the 
years draw nigh in which we must say we have no pleasure in them V 
When the clouds of misfortune descend, and poverty and want overtake 
us — when the heart is sick with the uufulfilment of hope, and the spirit 
droops over its blasted expectations — when the cup of life is poisoned 
by mischance or guile — when the storm hath no rainbow, and the mid- 
night no star — where then are the flatterers of our cloudless skies and 
our sunbright hours ? When the schemes of earthly ambition fail, and 
the hiss of the multitude follows our downfall, whither have they de- 
parted ? Where is the shadow that attended us, when the sun hath 
veiled his beams ? Where are the summer birds, when the voice of 
winter sighs in the leafless forests ? Alas ! it is too often but interest — 
or convenience — or habit — or fashion — that preserves the friendship of 
mankind. 

But the attachment of a mother no change of fortune, no loss of in- 
fluence, not even the loss of character, can destroy. As the triumph of 
her children is her own, so is their downfall and their dishonour. Her 
heart bleeds for them instinctively — her tears flow unbidden for their 
sorrows. Her eye follows them while present, and her soul goes with 
them while absent. With patience that never tires, and self-deiiial that 
never ceases, she cheerfully sacrifices for them her own comforts and 
pleasures. Her sympathy is felt, not obtruded ; her consolation is never 
officious, and always soothing to the spirit ; her friendship is unalterable 
in life, and strong in death — and she breathes her last sigh in a prayer 
for the welfare of her children. 

Remembrance hovers over every incident in those calm and blissful 
days when her presence gave life its charm. That affection which 
turned aside the arrows of misfortune — that gentleness which alleviated 
the pangs of distress — that tenderness which smoothed the pillow of 
sickness — that hand which held the aching head of pain — that piety and 
sanctity which kindled in our heart the pure flame of devotion — those 
smiles which beamed upon us, and ever the brightest when the world 
was frowning — and that unalterable love which supported us amidst its 
unkindness and ingratitude — can these ever be forgotten ? 



Spunk. — Let ancient or modern history be searched, they will not 
afford a more heroic display than the reply of the Yankees at Stoning- 
ton to the British commanders. The people were piling the balls which 
the enemy had wasted, when the foe applied to them : — "We want balls — 
will you sell them ?" They answered, '' We want powder— send us 
powder, and we'll return you balls." 



ESSAY ON DEATH. 237 



ESSAY ON DEATH. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

Gray. 

There is, in my opinion, nothing calculated to make so deep an im- 
pression on the mind as reflections on death. The generality of mankind 
are seldom disposed to think at all upon this subject ; they dislike to 
dwell on it for a moment, important and interesting as it undoubtedly is 
to all. The cause of this dislike is very obvious. It might naturally 
be supposed that the man who has never thought of a hereafter, and 
whose whole life has been one continued scene of deviations from the 
paths of moral rectitude, would dread the very idea of death, because it 
would cut him off for ever from all that he held most dear. Having been 
constantly forgetful of his God, of virtue and religion, he flies from every 
thing that might force the remembrance of that hour on his mind when 
he shall be severed from the world and plunged into an eternity of hap- 
piness or misery. The man who has spent his whole life, toiling day 
after day, in accumulating riches, is unwilling to suppose that he must 
shortly be separated from them, and that every tie which binds him to 
the earth must be broken asunder. Thus it is with most persons. But, 
however indifferent and callous man may appear to be on this subject, 
he must encounter those moments, in the course of a long life, in which 
the thoughts of eternity will insensibly force themselves upon his mind; — 
he must, one time or another, hearken to that " still small voice" that 
bids him view the lonely grave to which he is fast approaching, and from 
which there is no retreat. Happy is he who reflects frequently on his 
last hour, — who, often withdrawn from the busy world, is led to take 
walks " beneath death's gloomy, silent cyj^ress shades," there to medi- 
tate ! No spot, however retired or abandoned, has such an influence on 
the feelings as the last resting-place of man. To walk pensively among 
the tombs, to gaze upon those mounds under which the bones of thou- 
sands have long since mouldered away, and to think we must, ere long, 
return to our kindred dust, and mingle with those who have gone before 
us, — these are calculated to preach a solemn lesson, to still every pas- 
sion, and elevate our souls to the contemplation of that immortality for 
which we are all destined. 

" Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return," is a serious and 
important admonition ; — it teaches us, that however happy we may con- 
sider ourselves here, our enjoyments must be fleeting, and that the day 
is not far distant when death shall place us on a level with the clod 
under which we shall repose. What awful sensations do we experience 
on beholding a being about to depart from this world ! — but when we 
stand beside the bed of an affectionate parent or relative, on the very 
point of dissolution — when we take a lasting farewell of those who are 
linked to us by the dearest ties of affection and love, and who constitute 



288 FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 

our eliief happiness on earth, we are overwhelmed with sorrow, and de- 
prived of all consolation — our grief and anguish know no bounds when 
we reflect that we can never, in this world, hope to retrieve the loss we 
have just sustained. 'Tis then that we shall be compelled to meditate 
on death, — at the very thought of which all the pleasures of this world 
will instantly vanish. 

In the "narrow house," there is no distinction; the rich, the poor, 
the learned and ignorant, — all shall there one day alike repose, and 
moulder in their original clay. The most beautiful that now adorn the 
face of creation must, before long, become the prey of worms. No 
voice will burst forth from the silence of the grave to tell how fair a 
form lies there interred. Every one will thei'e be placed on an equalit}'-, 
— but how diiferent will be their spiritual doom ! That grave, over 
which a grand and stately monument has been erected, may yield up 
the hardened reprobate ; while that, overspread with thorns and bram- 
bles, may send forth the being destined for paradise. Death can only 
entomb the body; the soul is immortal; and, to the virtuous man, the 
hour that separates him from this world is truly welcome. Death to 
him is the " messenger of glad tidings," as it takes him from a world 
where perhaps he had experienced nothing but sorrow, disappointment, 
and affliction, to place him in the regions of everlasting felicity. He 
can behold its approach with calm delight ; having ever followed the 
dictates of virtue and religion, he fears nothing ; and when life's weary 
journey is closed, though his body be consigned to the earth, his soul 
will mount triumphantly above, and there repose in safety on the bosom 
of its Grod. 



WASHINGTON. 

At a banquet given by the Seventh Legion of the National Guards 
of Paris to General Lafayette, a speech was pronounced by General 
Matthew Dumas, from which we make the following extract : 

Fifty years since, at the same season of the year, and, if my memory 
is faithful, almost on the same day, General Washington came, accom- 
panied by General Lafayette, to pay his first visit to the French army 
disembarked at Rhode Island, and to unite the arms and standards of 
the United States with the arms and standards of France. He returned 
to his head-quarters, and I had the honour to form part of his escort. 
On the way, we passed near a small town, now become a very considera- 
ble one, when a crowd of children met us, each carrying a flambeau and 
filling the air with acclamations : they compelled the General to stop, 
and embraced his knees. Much affected, Washington turned to us, and 
said these memorable words : — " We are about to open the campaign — 
God only knows what will be the fate of war ; we shall perhaps be 
beaten — but here, (putting his hands on the heads of the young chil- 
dren,) here is an army which our enemies will never conquer." 



THE ANGEL S WING. 



239 



THE ANGEL'S WING. 



ET SAMUEL LOTEB. 



There is a German superstition, that -vrhen a sudden silence takes place in a company, an angel at that 
moment makes a circiiit around them, and the first person who breaks the silence is supposed to have been 
touched by the wing of the seraph. For the purpose of poetry, I thought two persons preferable to many, 
in illustrating this very beautiful superstition. 



When by the evening's quiet light 

There sit two silent lovers. 
They say, while in such tranquil jilight, 

An angel round them hovers: 
And further still old legends tell — 
The first who breaks the silent spell, 
To say soft and pleasing thing. 
Hath felt the passing angel's wing. 

Thus, a musing minstrel stray'd 

By the summer ocean,' 
Gazing on a lovely maid. 

With a bard's devotion : 
Yet his love he never spoke, 
TiU now the silent spell he broke. 
The hidden fire to flame did spring. 
Fanned by the passing angel's wing. 



I have loved thee well and long. 

With love of heaven's own making ! 
This is not a poet's song. 

But a true heart's speaking: 
I will love thee, still untired ! 
He felt— he spoke— as one inspired— 
The words did from truth's fountain spring, 
Unwakened by the angel's wing ! 

Silence o'er the maiden fell. 

Her beauty lovelier making. 
And by her blush, he knew full well 

The dawn of love was breaking: 
It came like sunshine o'er his heart! 
He felt that they should never part — 
He spoke — and, oh : the lovely thing 
Had felt the passing angel's wing. 



AN ANGEL IN THE CLOUDS. 



BY GEORGE W. BUNGAT. 



Methought the clouds in heaven so fair 

Were isles with cities filled, — 
With spires and turrets gleaming there. 
Just like the castles in the air. 

We often build. 

These islands, in the realms of space. 
Sailed on, through seas of blue. 
And there I could distinctly trace — 
The azure wing and angel face 

Of one I knew. 

She sat upon a radiant throne. 

And wore a crown of light. 
More glorious than the sun of noon — 
A heavenly halo round her shone — 

Her robes were white. 



She was a pleasant angel here. 

Before wings had been given 
To bear her to that blissful sphere. 
Beyond the silver cloud so near 

Her native heaven. 

I've seen her, at the sick child's bed. 

Watch with unsleeping eye, 
Until its gentle spirit fled. 
On rosy pinions, from the dead. 

To God on high. 

When sunlit clouds are floating by, 

I often bow to hear 
The sweep of wings from yonder sky. 
Where ministering spirits fly 

From sphere to sphere. 



TO MARY. 

Lines written in an Album. 



BT WILLIAM FIELDS. 



Mart, may thy life for ever. 

Be a constant scene of joy: 
May the ties of friendship ever 

Grow in strength without alloy. 

My fond wish, dear friend, believe me, 
(Through life's frail and chequer'd chart,) 

Is— that naught may ever grieve thee ;. 
Nothing pain t'ny generous heart. 

When thy days on earth are ended. 
When thy life-sands waste away. 

Then— oh, then!— may'st thou find blended 
With thy hopes— ETERNAL day. 



These, truly these, my lady friend. 

Are the wishes of my heart. 
And so shall be, till time shall end, 

My prayer that God more bliss impart. 

That while thou pass life's fearful storm, 

O'er mountain land or deep blue sea, 
Thy sister angels round thee form 
A chain of love— of hope to thee. 

Tes, friend, God grant thy being's sun 
The rainbow's beauteous hues may give, 

A long bright race of glory run. 
An endless beam of light may live. 



240 FIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 



"SOCRATES DIED LIKE A PHILOSOPHER, BUT JESUS 
CHRIST LIKE A GOD." 



It was on Sunday, as I travelled througla the county of Orange, Vir- 
ginia, that my eyes were caught by a cluster of horses tied near a 
ruinous old wooden house in the forest not far from the roadside. Hav- 
ing frequently seen such objects before, in travelling in these States. 
I had no diflBculty in understanding that this was a place of religious 
worship. 

Devotion alone should have stopped me, to join in the duties of the 
congregation ; but I must confess that curiosity to hear the preacher of 
such a wilderness was not the least of my motives. On entering, I was 
struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and a very 
spare man ; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his 
shrivelled hands, and his voice were all shaking under the influence of 
a palsy, and a few minutes ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind. 
The first emotions that touched my heart were those of mingled pity 
and veneration. But, ah ! sacred G-od ! how soon were my feelings 
changed ! The lips of the apostles appeared never more touched with 
holy fire than were those of this holy man ! It was a day of the admi- 
nistration of the sacrament — the subject was, of course, the passion of our 
Saviour. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times : I had 
thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose that, in the wild 
woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would give 
the subject a new and more sublime pathos than I had ever before wit- 
nessed. 

As he descended from the pulpit to distribute the mystic symbols, 
there was a peculiar, a more than human solemnity in his air and man- 
ner, which made my blood run cold and my whole frame shiver. 

Lie then drew a picture of the suiferings of our Saviour ; his trial 
before Pilate • his ascent up Calvary ; his crucifixion and death. I knew 
the whole history, but never, until then, had I heard the circumstances 
so selected, so arranged, so coloured! It was all new, and I seemed to 
have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so deli- 
berate, that his voice trembled on every syllable, and every heart in the 
assembly was in unison. His peculiar phrases had that force of descrip- 
tion, that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting 
before our eyes. We saw the faces of the Jews ; the staring, frightful 
distortions of malice and rage — we saw the bufi"et ; my soul kindled with 
a flame of indignation, and my hands were involuntarily and convul- 
sively clenched. 

But when he came to touch on the patience, the foi'giving meekness 
of our Saviour ; when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in 
tears to heaven; his voice breathing to God a soft and gentle prayer of 
pardon on his enemies, " Father, forgive them^ for they know not what 



CHRIST AND SOCRATES. 241 

they do" — tlie voice of the preacher, which had all along faltered, grew 
fainter and fainter, until, his utterance being entirely obstructed by the 
force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes, and burst into 
a loud and inexpressible flood of grief. The effect was inconceivable. 
The whole house resounded with the mingled groans, the sobs and shrieks 
of the congregation. It was some time before the tumult had subsided 
so far as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging by the usual but 
fallacious standard of my own weakness, I began to be very uneasy for 
the situation of the preacher, for I could not conceive how he would be 
able to let down his audience from the height to which he had wound 
them, without impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or, 
perhaps, shocking them by the abruptness of the fall. But, no — the 
descent was as beautiful and sublime, as the elevation had been rapid 
and enthusiastic. 

The first sentence with which he broke the awful silence was a quota- 
tion from Rousseau : " Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ 
like a God \" 

I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short 
sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the whole manner of the 
man, as well as the peculiar crisis in the discourse. Never before did I 
completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying stress on deli- 
very. You are to bring before you the venerable figure of the preacher; 
his blindness constantly calling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian, 
and Milton, and associating with his performance the melancholy gran- 
deur of these geniuses; you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, 
and well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling me- 
lody ; you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which 
the congregation were raised ; and then, the few minutes of portentous, 
deathlike silence, which reigned throughout the house ; the preacher 
removing his white handkerchief from his aged face, (even yet wet with 
the recent torrent of tears,) and, slowly stretching forth his palsied-hand 
which holds it, begins the sentence : " Socrates died like a philosopher" — ■ 
then pausing, raising his other hand, pressing them both together, with 
warmth and energy, to his breast, lifting his sightless eyelids to heaven, 
and pouring his whole soul into his voice — ''but Jesus Christ — like a 
God !" If he had been indeed and in truth an angel of light, the effect 
could scarcely have been more divine. 

Whatever I had been able to conceive of the sublimity of Massillon, 
or the force of Bourdaloue, it had fallen far short of the power which I 
felt from the delivery of this sentence. The blood which just before had 
rushed in a hurricane upon my brain, and, in the violence and agony of 
my feelings, had held my whole system in suspense, now ran back into 
my heart with a sensation which I cannot describe ; a kind of shudder- 
ing, delicious horror! The paroxysm of blended pity and indignation, 
to which I had been transported, subsided into the deepest self-abase- 
ment, humility, and adoration. I had been lacerated and dissolved by 
sympathy for our Saviour as a fellow-creature, but now, with fe^ir and 
trembling, I adored him — as a God ! 

If this description gives the impression that this incomparable minis- 
V 16 



242 PIBLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ter had any thing of shallow, theatrical trick in his manner, it does him 
great injustice. I have never seen, in any other orator, such a union of 
simplicity and majesty. He has not a gesture, an attitude, or an accent, 
to which he does not seem forced by the sentiment which he is express- 
ing. His mind is too serious, too earnest, too dignified, to stoop to 
artifice. Although as far removed from ostentation as a man can be, yet 
it is clear, from the train and style of his thoughts, that he is not only 
a polite scholar, but a man of extensive and profound erudition. I was 
forcibly struck with a short, yet beautiful character, which he drew of 
our learned and amiable countryman. Sir Robert Boyle : he spoke of 
him as if his "noble mind had, even before death, divested itself of all 
influence from his frail tabernacle of flesh ;" and called him, in his pecu- 
liarly emphatic and impressive manner, " a pure intelligence — the link 
between man and angels." 

This man has been before my imagination ever since. A thousand 
times, as I rode along, I dropped the reins of my bridle, and tried to imi- 
tate his quotation from Rousseau ; a thousand times I abandoned the 
attempt in despair, and felt persuaded that his peculiar manner arose 
from an energy of soul, which nature could give, but which no human 
being could justly copy. In short, he seems to be altogether a being of 
a former age, or of a totally diflferent nature from the rest of men. 



MAJOR ANDRE. 



It is certainly a very singular circumstance, that Andre should, in a 
very satirical poem, have foretold his own fate. It was called the "Cow 
■Qhase," and was published by Rivington, at New York, in consequence 
of the failure of an expedition undertaken by Wayne for the purpose of 
collecting cattle. Great liberties are taken with the American officers 
employed on the occasion, — with 

Harry Lee, and his dragoons, and Proctor witli Ms cannon. 

But the point of his irony seemed particularly aimed at WaynCy whose 
entire baggage, he asserts, was taken, containing 

His Congress dollars and his prog, 

His military speeches ; 
His cornstalk whiskey for his grog, 

Black stockings and blue breeches. 

And concludes by observing, that it is necessary to check the current 
of satire, 

Lest the same warrior-drover Wayne 
Should catch — and hang the poet. 

He was actually taken by a party from the division of the army imme- 
diately under the command of Wayne. 



THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. 243 



MOEAL AND INTELLECTUAL EFFICACY OF THE SACRED 
SCRIPTURES. 

BY WATLAND. 

As to the powerful, I had almost said miraculous, effect of the Sacred 
Scriptures, there cau no longer be a doubt in the mind of any one on 
whom the fact can make an impression. That the truths of the Bible 
have the power of awakening an intense moral feeling in man under 
every variety of character, learned or ignorant, civilized or savage; that 
they make bad men good, and send a pulse of healthful feeling through 
all the domestic, civil, and social relations ; that they teach men to love 
right, to hate wrong, and to seek each other's welfare, as the children 
of one common parent 3 that they control the baleful passions of the 
human heart, and thus make men proficients in the science of self-govern- 
ment ; and, finally, that they teach him to aspire after a conformity to a 
Being of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes infinitely more puri- 
fying, more exalting, more suited to his nature, than any other, which 
this world has ever known, — are facts incontrovertible as the laws of 
philosophy or the demonstrations of mathematics. Evidence in support 
of all this can be brought from every age, in the history of man, since 
there has been a revelation from God on earth. We see the proof of it 
everywhere around us. There is scarcely a neighbourhood in our coun- 
try, where the Bible is circulated, in which we cannot point you to a 
very considerable portion of its population, whom its truths have re- 
claimed from the practice of vice, and taught the practice of whatsoever 
things are pure, and honest, and just, and of good report. 

That this distinctive and peculiar effect is produced upon every man to 
whom the gospel is announced, we pretend not to afiirm. But we do- 
afiirm, that, besides producing this special renovation, to which we have 
alluded, upon a part, it, in a most remarkable degree, elevates the tone 
of moral feeling throughout the whole community. Wherever the Bible 
is freely circulated, and its doctrines carried home to the understandings 
of men, the aspect of society is altered ; the frequency of crime is dimi- 
nished ; men begin to love justice, and to administer it by law ; and a 
virtuous public opinion, that strongest safeguard of right, spreads over a 
nation the shield of its invisible protection. Wherever it has faithfully 
been brought to bear upon the human heart, even under the most unpro- 
mising circumstances, it has, within a single generation, revolutionized 
the whole structure of society ; and thus, within a few years, done more 
for man than all other means have for ages accomplished without it. 
For proof of all this, I need only refer you to the effects of the gospel 
in Greenland, or in South Africa, in the Society Islands, or even among 
the aborigines of our own country. 

But, before we leave this part of the subject, it may be well to pause 
for a moment, and inquire whether, in addition to its moral efficacy, the 
Bible may not exert a powerful influence upon the intellectual character 
of man. 



244 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

And here it is scarcely necessary that I should remark, that, of all 
the books with which, since the invention of writing, this world has 
been deluged, the number of those is very small which have produced 
any perceptible eifect on the mass of human character. By far the 
greater part have been, even by their contemporaries, unnoticed and un- 
known. Not many a one has made its little mark upon the generation 
that produced it, though it sank with that generation to utter forgetful- 
ness. But, after the ceaseless toil of six thousand years, how few have 
been the works, the adamantine basis of whose reputation has stood un- 
hurt amid the fluctuations of time, and whose impression can be traced, 
through successive centuries, on the history of our species. 

When, however, such a work appears, its effects are absolutely incal- 
culable ; and such a work, you are aware, is the Iliad of Homer. 
Who can estimate the results produced by the incomparable efforts of a 
single mind ? Who can tell what Greece owes to this firstborn of song ? 
Her breathing marbles, her solemn temples, her unrivalled eloquence, 
and her matchless verse, all point us to that transcendent genius, who, 
by the very splendour of his own effulgence, woke the human intellect 
from the slumber of ages. It was Homer who gave laws to the artist ; 
it was Homer who inspired the poet ; it was Homer who thundered in 
the senate ; and, more than all, it was Homer who was sung by the 
people; and hence a nation was cast into the mould of one mighty 
mind, and the land of the Iliad became the region of taste, the birth- 
place of the arts. 

Nor was this influence confined within the limits of G-reece. Long 
after the sceptre of empire had passed westward. Genius still held her 
court on the banks of the Ilyssus, and from the country of Homer gave 
laws to the world. The light, which the blind old man of Scio had 
kindled in Greece, shed its radiance over Italy, and thus did he awaken 
a second nation into intellectual existence. And we may form some 
idea of the power which this one work has to the present day exerted 
over the mind of man, by remarking, that " nation after nation, and 
century after century has been able to do little more than transpose his 
incidents, new-name his characters, and paraphrase his sentiments." 

But, considered simply as an intellectual production, who will com- 
pare the poems of Homer with the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testament ? Where in the Iliad shall we find simplicity and pathos 
which shall vie with the narrative of Moses, or maxims of conduct to 
equal in wisdom the Proverbs of Solomon, or sublimity which does not 
fade away before the conceptions of Job or David, of Isaiah or St. 
John ? But, I cannot pursue this comparison. I feel that it is doing wrong 
to the mind which dictated the Iliad, and to those other mighty intel- 
lects on whom the light of the holy oracles never shined. Who that 
has read his poem has not observed how he strove in vain to give dignity 
to the mythology of his time ? Who has not seen how the religion of 
his country, unable to support the flight of his imagination, sank power- 
less beneath him ? It is the unseen world, where the master-spirits of 
our race breathe freely, and are at home ; and it is mournful to behold 
the intellect of Homer striving to free itself from the conceptions of 



INGENIOUS DEVICE. 245 

materialism, and then sinking down in hopeless despair, to weave the 
idle tales about Jupiter and Juno, Apollo and Diana. But the difficul- 
ties under which he laboured are abundantly illustrated by the fact, that 
the light which he poured upon the human intellect taught other ages 
how unworthy was the religion of his day of the man who was compelled 
to use it. " It seems to me," says Longinus, " that Homer, when he 
describes dissensions, jealousies, tears, imprisonments, and other afflic- 
tions to his deities, hath, as much as was in his power, made the men 
of the Iliad gods, and the gods men. To man, when afflicted, death is 
the termination of evils ; but he hath made not only the nature, but the 
miseries, of the gods eternal." 

If, then, so great results have flowed from this one effort of a single 
mind, what may we not expect from the combined efforts of several, at 
least his equals in power over the human heart ? If that one genius, 
though groping in the thick darkness of absurd idolatry, wrought so 
glorious a transformation in the character of his countrymen, what may 
we not look for from the universal dissemination of those writings, on 
whose authors was poured the full splendour of eternal truth ? If un- 
assisted human nature, spell-bound by a childish mythology, have done 
so much, what may we not hope for from the supernatural effects of 
pre-eminent genius, which spake as it was moved by the Holy Grhost ! 



INOENIOUS DEVICE. 

The following curious story is told of an old lady living in Bucking- 
hamshire. The husband of this ancient dame died without making his 
will, for the want of which very necessary precaution his estate would 
have passed away from his widow, had she not resorted to the following 
expedient to avert the loss of the property. She concealed the death 
of her husband, and prevailed upon an old cobbler, her neighboui', who 
was in person somewhat like the deceased, to go to bed at her house 
and personate him, in which character it was agreed that he should dic- 
tate a will, leaving the widow the estate in question. An attorney was 
sent for to draw up the writing. The widow, who on his arrival ap- 
peared in great affliction at her good man's danger, began to ask ques- 
tions of her pretended husband, calculated to elicit the answers she ex- 
pected and desired. The cobbler groaned aloud, and looking as much 
like a person going to give up the ghost as possible, feebly answered, 
" I intend to leave you half my estates, and I think the poor old shoe- 
maker who lives opposite is deserving the other half, for he has alwtiys 
been a good neighbour." The widow was thunderstruck at receiving a 
reply so different to that which she expected, but dared not negative the 
cobbler's idll, for fear of losing the whole of the property, while the 
old rogue in laed (who was himself the poor old shoemaker living op- 
posite) laughed in his sleeve, and divided with her the fruits of a pro- 
ject which the widow had intended for her sole benefit. 
v2 



24G riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



WOMAN. 



Who does not love the name ? Who is so close to the heart of any 
being as his mother ? — for whom would he die so soon — and whose love 
is like hers ? V/hat cares she for his disgrace or even his sin ? Her 
love is ever the same ! She will joy in his prosperity and weep for his 
sin and shame — but never, never forsake him. She will watch over his 
bed of sickness and impoverish herself to raise him to health. Nor is 
she the only being whose love is thus deep and constant. She who has 
once plighted her faith and given her love to man will never withdraw 
it — in disgrace — in poverty — in prison even^ — she is still the same. 
She will love him in his degradation, and the deeper he sinks she will 
bind him the closer to her heart. Will man do so ? Will he love till 
death, through reverse and misery ? Not he — let but the report of 
shame spot the fair character of the woman he has loved, and his mockery 
of faith is broken — he loves no longer. Alas ! what tales might woman 
tell, of broken vows and severed hearts — of withered hopes and bruised 
affections — if she held but the pen. I thank Grod, woman has a power 
of her own, to which, some day or other, every man must bow : he may 
revile, he may, like a coward, attack her fair fame ; but sooner or later 
he must bow at the footstool of her beauty and confess to the loveliness 
which he has assailed and the heart which he has insulted. It is well 
for the world that woman has a power arising from her beauty and 
virtue, which binds in a chain of invisible power the strong to the weak. 
That love — that tremendous power — still exists, and is as strong and 
as reckless as ever — and it would be well for the revilers of woman to 
remember that a day must come when they will bow in shame before 
the unsullied altar of love and beauty, whose flames they have tried to 
extinguish for ever. 



THE FARMER. 



It does one's heart good to see a merry, round-faced farmer. So inde- 
pendent, and yet so free from vanities and pride. So rich, and yet so 
industrious ; so patient and persevering in his calling, and yet so kind, 
social, and obliging. There are a thousand noble traits about him 
which light up his character. He is generally hospitable : eat and drink 
with him, and he wont set a mark on you, and sweat it out of you with 
a double compound interest at another time — you are welcome. He 
will do you a kindness without expecting a return by way of compensa- 
tion ; it is not so with everybody. He is generally more honest and 
sincere — less disposed to deal in a low and underhand cunning, than 
many I could name. He gives to society its best support — he is the 
edifice of government and the lord of nature. Look at him in home- 
spun gray and black, gentlemen ; laugh, if you will — but, believe me, 
he can laugh back, if he pleases. 



WASHINGTON. 24T 



WASHINaTON. 

The person of G-eorge Washington was uncommonly tall. Mountain 
air, abundant exercise in the open country, the wholesome toils of the 
chase, and the delightful scenes of rural life expanded his limbs to an 
unusual, but graceful and well-proportioned size. His exterior suggested 
to every beholder the idea of strength, united with manly gracefulness. 
His form was noble and his port majestic. No man could approach him 
without respect. His frame was robust, his constitution vigorous, and 
he was capable of enduring great fatigue. His passions were naturally 
strong; with them was his first contest, and over them his first victory. 
Before he undertook to command others, he had thoroughly learned to 
command himself. The powers of his mind were more solid than bril- 
liant. Judgment was his forte. To vivacity, wit, and the sallies of a 
lively imagination, he made no pretensions. His faculties resembled 
those of Aristotle, Bacon, Locke, and Newton, but were very unlike those 
of Voltaire. Possessed of a large proportion of common sense, directed 
by a sound practical judgment, he was better fitted for the exalted sta- 
tions to which he was called, than many others, who, to a greater bril- 
liancy of parts, frequently added the eccentricities of genius. 

Truth and utility were his objects. He steadily pursued and generally 
obtained them. With this view, he thought much, and closely examined 
every subject on which he was to decide, in all its relations. Neither 
passion, party-spirit, prejudice, ambition, nor interest influenced his deli- 
berations. In making up his mind, on great occasions, many of which 
occurred, in which the fate of the army or nation seemed involved, he 
sought for information from all quarters; resolved the subject by night 
and by day, and examined it in every point of view. Gruided by these 
lights, and influenced by an honest and good heart, he was imperceptibly 
led to decisions which were wise and judicious. Perhaps no man ever 
lived who was so often called upon to form a judgment in cases of real 
difficulty, and who so often formed a right one. Engaged in the busy 
scenes of life, he knew human nature, and the most proper method of 
accomplishing proposed objects. Of a thousand propositions, he knew 
how to distinguish the best, and to select among a thousand the indivi- 
dual most fitted for his purpose. 

As a military man, he possessed personal courage, and a firmness which 
neither danger nor difficulties could shake. His perseverance overcame 
every obstacle ; his moderation conciliated all opposition ; his genius 
supplied every resource. He knew how to conquer by delay, and de- 
served true praise by despising unmerited censure. Inferior to his 
adversary in the numbers, the equipment, and discipline of his troops, no 
great advantage was ever obtained over him, and no opportunity to strike 
an important blow was ever neglected. In the most ardent moments of 
the contest, his prudent firmness proved the salvation of his country. 

The whole range of history does not present another character on which 



248 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

we can dwell with entire, unmixed admiration. His qualities were so 
happily blended and so nicely harmonized that the result was a great 
and perfect whole. 



THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 

BY MISS WINCHESTER. 

Look on the broad and glorious face of the sky, atheist ! when suns 
are there in their splendour, and innumerous worlds wheel their cease- 
less and eternal course through the regions of infinite space : dost thou 
not there discover the hand of a superior power, pointing out their path- 
way and upholding the structure of the august universe ? Look, when 
clouds are there, piled up in the awfulness of their grandeur, and the 
lightning rides forth on the car of destruction ; listen to the roll of the 
thunder, and to the rush of the tempest, as he sweeps through the shud- 
dering earth — seest thou no God there ? Hearest thou not the sound of 
his voice, and the rolling of his chariot- wheels ? Look on the bosom of 
the ocean, when not a breath disturbs its deep repose, and it lies stretched 
out like a vast mirror reflecting the firmament of heaven — seest thou 
there no traces of Deity ? Look, when the spirit of the deep has arisen 
in his anger; when billow wars with billow; when the mountain waves 
seem to mingle with the sky, and darkness flings its awful shroud over 
the contending waters, leaving no cheerful ray to guide the hapless mari- 
ner to his haven — -seest thou not there a being of infinite power and great- 
ness ? 

Look on the beautiful earth, when she puts on her rich robes of fruits 
and flowers; when the fragrance of all that is grateful to the senses is in 
her nostrils, and her voice is full of songs and melodious hymning — dost 
thou not there discern a power of love, and mercy, and holiness ? 

Look, when dreadful winter comes forth from his prison of the north 
dealing out ruin and terror, and covering the glorious sky with angry 
frowns and threatening ; all that is beautiful in the earth retire before 
him, and he rides on triumphantly, marking his footsteps with grandeur 
and desolation ! Seest thou there no august — no mighty hand? 

Look, yet once again, and behold the creature that walks upright in 
the midst of creation, and is master of all that surrounds him ; mark the 
immortality that beams from his countenance, and his look which pene- 
trates the skies : — then turn thy thoughts within, and listen to the voice 
of thy own bosom — observe all its workings ; its fears ; its hopes ; its 
susceptibility of the most exquisite enjoyment and wretchedness; its 
anxious thirst for still greater and greater knowledge ; its earnest, con- 
stant and undying cravings after something still unobtained, and still 
buried in the mysterious future ; and above all, its convulsive clingings 
to life, and its unutterable dread of ceasing to be. Atheist— art thou 
not immortal? — and is there not a God? 



EXTRACT FROM HYPERION. 249 

EXTRACT FROM 'aiYPERION.'^* 

BY JOSIAH QUINCY, JUJT. 

When I reflect on the exalted character of the ancient Britons, on the 
fortitude of onr illustrious predecessors, on the noble struggles of the 
late memorable period, and, from these reflections, when, by a natural 
transition, I contemplate the gloomy aspect of the present day, my heart 
is alternately torn with doubt and hope, despondency and terror. Can 
the true, generous magnanimity of British heroes be entirely lost in their 
degenerate progeny? Is the genius of liberty, which so lately inflamed 
our bosoms, fled for ever ? 

An attentive observer of the deportment of some particular persons in 
this metropolis would be apt to imagine that the grand point was gained ; 
that the spirit of the people was entirely broken to the yoke ; that all 
America was subjugated to bondage. Already the minions of power in 
fancy fatten and grow wanton on the spoils of the land. They instantly 
toss the head, and put on the air of contemptuous disdain. In the ima- 
ginary possession of lordships and dominions, these jjotentates and powers 
dare tell us that our only hope is to crouch, to cower under, and to kiss 
the iron rod of oppression. Precious sample of the meek and lowly tem- 
per of those who are destined to be our lords and masters ! 

Be not deceived, my countrymen. Believe not these venal hirelings, 
when they would cajole you by their subtilties into submission, or frighten 
you by their vapourings into compliance. When they strive to flatter 
you by the terms " moderation and prudence," tell them that calmness 
and deliberation are to guide the judgment; courage and intrepidity 
command the action. When they endeavour to make us '^perceive our 
inability to oppose our mother country," let us boldly answer — in defence 
of our civil and religious rights, we dare oppose the world; with the God 
of armies on our side, even the God who fought our fathers' battles, we 
fear not the hour of trial, though the hosts of our enemies should cover 
the field like locusts. If this be enthusiasm, we will live and die enthu- 
siasts. 

Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a "halter" 
intimidate. For, under God, we are determined, that wheresoever, when- 
soever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die 
freemen. Well do we know that all the regalia of this world cannot 
dignify the death of a villain, nor diminish the ignominy with which a 
slave shall quit existence. Neither can it taint the unblemished honour 
of a son of freedom, though he should make his departure on the alreadj'' 
prepared gibbet, or be dragged to the newly-erected scaffold for execu- 

* The first part of this extract was published in the Boston Gazette, in September, 
1767, on receiving information of threatening import from England ,• the remainder 
appeared in October, 1768, when the British troops had landed in Boston and taken 
possession of Faneuil Hall, under circumstances intended to inspire the people with 
^larm and terror. 



250 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

tion. With the plaudits of his conscience he will go off the stage. A 
crown of joy and immortality shall be his reward. The history of his 
life his children shall venerate. The virtues of their sire shall excite 
their emulation. 

If there ever was a time, this is the hour for Americans to rouse 
themselves and exert every ability. Their all is at a hazard, and the die 
of fate spins doubtful. In vain do we talk of magnanimity and heroism, 
in vain do we trace a descent from the worthies of the earth, if we inhe- 
rit not the spirit of our ancestors. Who is he that boasteth of his pa- 
triotism ? Plas he vanquished luxury, and subdued the worldly pride 
of his heart ? Is he not still drinking the poisonous draught, and rolling 
the sweet morsel under his tongue? He who cannot conquer the little 
vanity of his heart, and deny the delicacy of a debauched palate, let him 
lay his hand upon his mouth, and his mouth in the dust. 

Now is the time for this people to summon every aid, human and di- 
vine; to exhibit every moral virtue, and call forth every Christian grace. 
The wisdom of the serpent, the innocence of the dove, and the intrepi- 
dity of the lion, with the blessing of Grod, will yet save us from the jaws 
of destruction. 

Where is the boasted liberty of Englishmen, if property may be dis- 
posed of, charters suspended, assemblies dissolved, and every valued 
right annihilated at the uncontrollable will of an external power? 
Does not every man, who feels one ethereal spark yet glowing in his 
bosom, find his indignation kindle at the bare imagination of such 
wrongs ? What would be our sentiments were this imagination real- 
ized. 

Did the blood of the ancient Britons swell our veins, did the spirit of 
our forefathers inhabit our breasts, should we hesitate a moment in pre- 
ferring death to a miserable existence in bondage ? Did we reflect on 
their toils, their dangers, their fiery trials, the thought would inspire 
unconquerable courage. 

Who has the front to ask, wherefore do you complain ? V/ho dares 
assert, that every thing worth living for is not lost, when a nation is 
enslaved? Are not pensioners, stipendiaries, and salary-men, unknown 
before, hourly multiplying upon us, to riot in the spoils of miserable 
America ? Does not every eastern gale waft us some new insect, even 
of that devouring kind which eat up every green thing? Is not the 
bread taken out of the children's mouths and given unto the dogs ? Are 
not our estates given to corrupt sycophants, without a design, or even a 
pretence of soliciting our assent; and our lives put into the hands of 
those whose tender mercies are cruelties ? Has not an authority in a 
distant land, in the most public manner, proclaimed a right of disposing 
of the all of Americans ? In short, what have we to lose ? What have 
we to fear ? Are not our distresses more than we can bear ? And, to 
finish all, are not our cities, in a time of profound peace, filled with stand- 
ing armies, to preclude from us that last solace of the wretched^ — to 
open their mouths in complaint, and send forth their cries in bitterness 
of heart .'' 



EXTRACT FROM HYPERION. 251 

But is there no ray of hope ? Is not G-reat Britain inhabited by the 
children of those renowned barons who waded through seas of crimson 
gore to establish their liberty ? and will they not allow us, their fellow- 
men, to enjoy that freedom which we claim from nature, which is con- 
firmed by our constitution, and which they pretend so highly to value ? 
Were a tyrant to conquer us, the chains of slavery, when opposition 
should become useless, might be supportable ; but to be shackled by 
Englishmen — by our equals — is not to be borne. By the sweat of our 
brow we earn the little we possess ; from nature we derive the common 
rights of man; and by charter we claim the liberties of Britons. Shall 
we, dare we pusillanimously surrender our birthright? Is the obligation 
to our fathers discharged ? Is the debt we owe posterity paid ? Answer 
me, thou coward, who hidest thyself in the hour of trial ! If there is 
no reward in this life, no prize of glory in the next, capable of animating 
thy dastard soul, think and tremble, thou miscreant ! at the whips and 
stripes thy master shall lash thee with on earth, — and the flames and 
scorpions thy second master shall torment thee with hereafter ! 

my countrymen ! what will our children say, when they read the 
history of these times, should they find that we tamely gave away, with- 
out one noble struggle, the most invaluable of earthly blessings ! As 
they drag the galling chain, will they not execrate us ? If we have any 
respect for things sacred, any regard to the dearest treasure on earth ; 
if we have one tender sentiment for posterity ; if we would not be de- 
spised by the whole world; — let us, in the most open, solemn manner, 
and with determined fortitude, swear — we will die, if we cannot live, free- 
men ! 

Be not lulled, my countrymen, with vain imaginations or idle fancies. 
To hope for the protection of Heaven, without doing our duty and ex- 
erting ourselves as becomes men, is to mock the Deity. Wherefore had 
man his reason, if it were not to direct him ? Wherefore his strength, 
if it be not his protection ? To banish folly and luxury, correct vice 
and immorality, and stand immovable in the freedom in which we are 
free indeed, is eminently the duty of each individual at this day. When 
this is done, we may rationally hope for an answer to our prayers — for 
the whole counsel of God, and the invincible armour of the Almighty. 

However righteous our cause, we cannot, in this period of the world, 
expect a miraculous salvation. Heaven will, undoubtedly, assist us, if we 
act like men ; but to expect protection from above, while we are ener- 
vated by luxury and slothful in the exertion of those abilities with 
which we are endued, is an expectation vain and foolish. With the 
smiles of Heaven, virtue, unanimity, and firmness will insure success. 
Vfhile we have equity, justice, and God on our side, tyranny, spiritual 
or temporal, shall never ride triumphant in a land inhabited by English- 
men. 



True Magnanimity. — Hath any wronged thee ! — be bravely re- 
venged; slight it, and the work is begun; forgive it, and 'tis finished. 
He is below himself who is not above an injury. 



252 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



PATRICK HENRY. 

The moment that the United States had established their independ- 
ence on a firm basis, Patrick Henry, so renowned for the bold and active 
part he took in effecting this revolution, was the first to forget all pre- 
vious animosities, and to hold out the hand of reconciliation and peace- 
He was a strong advocate for every measure which could induce the 
return of the refugees, who had espoused the cause of the mother-coun- 
try, and made a proposition in their favour, which was very severely 
animadverted upon by some of the most respected members of Congress. 
Among others. Judge Tyler, the speaker of the Assembly, vehemently 
opposed him, and, in a committee of the House, demanded " how he, above 
all other men, could think of inviting into his family an enemy from 
whose insults and injuries he had suffered so severely ?" The following 
was his prompt and beautiful reply : 

"I acknowledge, indeed, sir, that I have many personal injuries of 
which to complain^ but when I enter this hall of legislation, I endeavour, 
as far as human infirmity will permit, to leave all personal feelings behind 
me. This question is a national one, and, in deciding it, if you act 
wisely, you will regard nothing but the interest of the nation. On the 
altar of my country's good, I am willing to sacrifice all personal resent- 
ments, all private wrongs ; and I am sure I should most absurdly flatter 
myself, if I thought that I was the only person in this house capable of 
making such a sacrifice.'^ 

Mr. Henry then proceeded to show, in a very forcible manner, the 
policy of using every possible means of augmenting the population of a 
country as yet so thinly inhabited as America, whose future greatness 
he thus prophetically depicted : 

'^ Encourage emigration — encourage the husbandmen, the mechanics, 
the merchants of the Old World, to come and settle in this world of pro- 
mise — make it the home of the skilful, the industrious and happy, as 
well as the asylum of the distressed — fill up the measure of your popu- 
lation as speedily as you can, by the means which Heaven hath placed in 
your power, and, I venture to prophesy, there are those now living who 
will see this favoured land among the most powerful on earth. Yes, sir, 
they will see her great in arts and in arms — her golden harvests waving 
over immeasurable extent — her commerce penetrating the most distant 
seas, and her cannon silencing the vain boast of those who now affect to 
rule the waves." 

Mr. Henry's proposition was carried, and every succeeding year proves 
that his anticipations were well founded. America soon experienced the 
policy of his counsels; and, tide after tide, emigration has ever since con- 
tinued to roll wealth and improvement over her provinces. 



A FALSE friend is like a shadow on a dial : it appears in clear wea- 
ther, but vanishes as soon as a cloud approaches. 



ANECDOTE OF A KENTUCKY PIONEER. 253 



ANECDOTE OF A KENTUCKY PIONEEE. 

The late John Haggin, Esq., of Mercer county, came to Kentucky at 
an early period. On his arrival, the few inhabitants resided principally 
at Harrodsburg and Boonsborough. Lexington had not then been settled. 
Mr. Haggin, desirous of commencing the cultivation of the fertile land 
in this region of country, made some entries, that. is, purchased several 
tracts from government; among the rest, one at a place near where Harri- 
son, Boui'bon, and Fayette counties unite. He commenced the improve- 
ment of the place, removed some of the trees, erected a small log-house 
and brought to his new residence some furniture ; among other things, 
a few iron kettles, to be used in making sugar from the sugar-trees, 
which were then and are now abundant in that country. Owing to the 
want of roads and means of transportation, heavy iron utensils were of 
great value, and but few persons had or could procure them. Shortly 
after Mr. Haggin commenced working on his new place, the hostility of 
the savages became so alarming, that he was constrained to abandon his 
cabin and seek security in the fort at Harrodsburg. Previously, how- 
ever, to his departure, he used the precaution of burying his kettles. 
He was accompanied to Harrodsburg by his wife and one child, a daugh- 
ter, who is now residing in Woodford county, united in marriage to a 
gentleman of respectability. 

Mr. Haggin spent the winter with his family in the fort, where they were 
somewhat incommoded by the crowd of persons within so small a place. 
In the spring, perceiving no indication of the savages in the vicinity, 
and desirous of getting out of the fort, he erected a cabin in a valley 
near the stream from the big spring towards the fort, on the side nest to 
where the town of Harrodsburg now is, situated less than a quarter of a 
mile distant from the fort, (the fort being on an eminence,) but directly 
in view. Mr. Haggin and family spent the summer at their little tene- 
ment, engaged in domestic concerns and in cultivating a small portion 
of land, released, to be sure, from the confinement of the fort, but under 
continual apprehensions of a visit from the Indians. Bach morning 
before the door was unbarred, they peeped out of the cabin, " illumined 
by many a cranny,^' to spy out the insidious enemy, who il was feared might 
be lurking about behind logs and trees ready to rush in and murder the 
family. They remained, however, in a great measure, uninterrupted 
until fall, when Mr. Haggin determined to revisit his place on this side 
of the river, for the purpose of removing some of his kettles to Harrods- 
burg, preparatory to making sugar in winter. He set out in company 
with an active woodsman that he had hired to assist him. On the second 
day they came in sight of Mr. Haggin's place, on the edge of what is 
now Harrison county; they were riding slowly and cautiously along, 
watching for enemies, when, looking forward to the place where the 
cabin had stood, they perceived that it had just been burned down, and 
saw three or four Indians sitting near the ruin. 

Haggin proposed to his companion that they should fall back and pre- 
W 



254 riELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

pare themselves, and return and give the Indians battle. They retreated 
a few hundred yards, dismounted, took off their exterior clothing, retain- 
ing only their shirts, leggings, and moccasins, tied the other clothing on 
their horses and turned them loose, intending, in case of a retreat, to 
regain their horses, but, if they could not succeed in that, they deemed 
it prudent to be lightly clothed that they might fly with more celerity. 
Having examined their rifles and seen that every thing was in order, 
they set out to attack the enemy. It was arranged that Haggin should 
proceed on foremost, fire his gun at the savages, and retreat to a tree ; 
that his companion should reserve his shot until the enemy approached, 
and then fire and retreat : thus they would fire and load alternately. 
But this well-arranged plan, like many others equally sagacious, proved 
abortive. While Haggin and his companion were engaged in a council 
of war, it did not occur to them that the savages had seen them and 
were concerting plans also. 

Mr. Haggin, agreeably to the mode of attack agreed on, advanced 
slowly, his body bent down, casting his eye forward, intently watching 
for a sight of an Indian to get a shot at. He heard a low voice behind 
him ; he listened ; his companion cried out in a quick under-tone, " Hag- 
gin, don't you see we are about to be surrounded ? Let us retreat." Haggin 
cast his eyes around and saw hundreds of Indians rise up from among 
the cane, having nearly surrounded him. He immediately fled, they 
pursued, but did not then fire, lest, in shooting across, they should kill 
each other. The two flanks of the ambuscade began rapidly to close 
upon Haggin. He directed his steps towards his horse, which was quietly 
feeding on the cane ; Haggin was a very active man, and a fleet runner, 
but some of the savages appeared to equal him. He reached his horse, 
and sprang from the ground, intending to leap into the saddle from 
behind. As he placed his hands on his horse's rump, an Indian ran the 
muzzle of his gun against Haggin's side and fired. That moment Hag- 
gin leaped ; at the same instant the horse, being alarmed, sprang also. 
Haggin fell and thought he was mortally wounded, but, feeling no pain, 
rebounded to his feet and fled, exerting his whole strength ; the savages, 
perceiving that he had escaped, and was ahead of them, commenced firing 
on him, and perhaps one hundred bullets were thus commissioned to kill, 
but none took effect. The chase was kept up for some hours, when the 
Indians, finding it fruitless, ceased the pursuit. Haggin, being very hot 
and much fatigued, went into a creek to cool his limbs. After he came 
out, he sat down at the root of a tree and fell asleep ; when he awoke 
he discovered that it was snowing ; the air had become cold, and he was 
much chilled. Having time now to think, the horrors of his situation 
rose to his view; he had lost his horse, gun, and clothes; he was 
forty miles from Harrodsburg, and twenty-five from the nearest other 
station, which was Boonsborough, without food or the means of getting 
any, night coming on, snow falling, no blanket to keep him warm, nor 
means of striking fire : he might perhaps freeze to death. He determined 
to steer for Boonsborough. After indescribable difiiculty in making his 
way through the cane, loaded with snow and suff'ering from cold, loss of 
sleep, and fatigue, he reached Boonsborough the next morning. Having 



ANECDOTE OF A KENTUCKY PIONEER. 255 

eaten something, he lay clown, and slept from that time until the follow- 
ing morning. 

In the mean time the man who accompanied Mr. Haggin had got to 
Harrodsburg, and reported that he was killed, overwhelming his wife 
with the distressing intelligence. 

Haggin, on the day after his arrival at Boonsborough, set out, accompa- 
nied by a Mr. Pendegrast, (the same whose family afterwards lived in 
Jefferson or Bullit county,) for Harrodsburg. The wife of Mr. Pende- 
grast had been staying for some time with Mrs. Haggin in a little 
tenement near the fort at Harrodsburg. Haggin had supplied himself 
with clothing and a gun before he left Boonsborough. The two friends 
journeyed on without interruption until they arrived at a little eminence 
near Mr. Haggin's residence. On casting their eyes to the spot where 
they expected to find what was most dear to them on earth — their wives 
and children — what must have been their astonishment and horror when 
they beheld the cabin a smoky ruin, and one or two hundred savages 
around the place ! Haggin's feelings were now wrought up to despera- 
tion : he called on Pendegrast to follow, saying he no longer valued life, 
now his wife and children were all murdered; that he would die, but 
sell his life dear to the enemy. Pendegrast accompanied him. They 
rushed directly up to where the Indians were standing. The reckless 
manner in which they approached excited the surprise of the savages, 
who stood inactive, not making any attempt to injure the two desperate 
men. At this moment, one or both of them cast a look towards the 
fort, and saw, or thought they saw, their wives on the walls of the fort 
waving their handkerchiefs to them. The desire of living immediately 
returned to their hearts. They changed their course, and sprang towards 
the fort. The Indians raised the yell, darted after them, and many guns 
were fired. Both of the white men fell in full view of the fort; the 
wives screamed, believing their husbands were slain. In a moment 
Haggin was on his feet again ; he rushed forward, the savages in close 
pursuit ; one struck him on the back with his tomahawk : it proved 
harmless. The gate flew open, and he was received with a shout of joy 
in the arms of his wife, having escaped entirely unhurt ; his fall had 
been accidental. But poor Pendegrast fell to rise no more. His friends 
from the fort saw the savages take the scalp from his head. 



A Religious Life. — The beauty of a religious life is one of its 
greatest recommendations. What does it profess ? Peace to all man- 
kind. It teaches us those arts which will render us beloved and respected, 
which will contribute to our present comfort as well as our future happi- 
ness. Its greatest ornament is charity — it inculcates nothing but love 
and simplicity of affection ; it breathes nothing but the purest spirit of 
delight : in short, it is a system perfectly calculated to benefit the heart, 
improve the mind, and enlighten the understanding. 



256 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



aPvEEK SONG. 



Mount, soldier, mount thy gallant steed — 

Seek, seek the ranks of war ; 
'Tis better there in death to bleed, 

Than drag a tyrant's car. 
Strike : strike ! nor think the blow unseen 
That frees the limbs where chains have been. 

Oh no ! each dying shout that peals 

From continent or isle ; 
Each smoke that, curling slow, reveals 

A city's funeral pile, — 
Are heard and seen among the free, 
Whose hearts are struggling, Greece, with thee. 

On, on, for Karaiskaki's hand ! 

Look where the crescents wave ; 
They glance above a ruin'd land. 

Like death-lights o'er a grave ; 
One prayer, one thought of Marathon, 
And they are queuch'd— on, soldier, on ! 



But yet, if not the glorious past. 

For hope of future fame, 
No chains of steel around thee cast. 

Urge thee to war witli shame : — 
Think that beyond the parting sea, 
The prayers of beauty rise for thee. 

Nay, cast not on thy infant child 

That look of fond regret, — 
Mind not that shriek of sorrow wild, — 

Thy wife shall clasp thee y et ; — 
God, and the fair across the wave. 
Watch o'er the children of the brave. 

Then, soldier, mount thy gallant steed- 
Seek, seek the ranks of war ; 

'Tis better there in death to bleed. 
Than drag a tyrant's ear. 

One clasp — one kiss — then soldier on — 

And win another Marathon. 



ON LxiYINa THE COPtNER-STONE OF THE BUNKER 
HILL MONUMENT. 



BY PIERPONT, 



Oh, is not this a holy spot ? 

'Tis the high place of freedom's birth ! 
God of our fathers ! is it not 

The holiest spot of all the earth ? 

Queneh'd is thy flame on Horeb's side ; 

The robber roams o'er Sinai now; 
And those old men, thy seers, abide 

No more on Zion's mournful brow. 

But on tJiU hill thou. Lord, hast dwelt, 
Since round his head the war-cloud curl'd. 

And wrapp'd oxir fathers, where they knslt 
In prayer and battle for a world. 



Here sleeps their dust : 'tis holy ground: 
And we, the children of the brave. 

From the four winds are gather'd round, 
To lay our offering on their grave. 

Free as the winds around us blow. 
Free as the waves below us spread, 

We rear a pile, that long shall throw 
Its shadow on their sacred bed. 

But on tlieir deeds no shade shall fall. 
While o'er their couch thy sun shall flame: 

Thine ear was bound to hear their call, 
And thy right hand shall guard their fame. 



NAME IN THE SAND. 



Alone I walk'd on the ocean strand, 
A pearly shell was in my hand ; 
I stoop'd and wrote xir)on the sand 

My name, the year, the day ; 
As onward from the spot I pass'd. 
One lingering look behind I east, 
A wave came rolling high and fast. 

And wash'd my lines away. 

And so, methought, 'twill quickly be 
With every mark on earth with me ! 
A wave of dark oblivion's sea 

Will sweep across the placa 



Where I have trod the sandy shore 
Of time, and been to be no more ; 
Of me, my day, the name I bore. 

To leave no track or tract. 

And yet with Him who counts the sands, 
And holds the waters in his hands, 
I know a lasting record stands 

Inscribed ag,iinst my name ; 
Of all this mortal part has wrought. 
Of all this thinking soul has thought. 
And from these fleeting moments caught. 

For glory or for shame ! 



THE DREAM OF LOVE. 257 



THE DEEAM OF LOVE. 

BY C. LtJDLOW. 

I HAVE seen a bubble blown into its circular and indescribable beauty ; 
on its brilliant surface were painted the most inimitable pictures of light 
and life; graceful clouds floated in the bosom of the mimic sky; a tiny 
sun ii-radiated the little world, and cast all the magic of light and shade 
over a landscape of most bewitching splendour. A creation bright as a 
poet could imagine glowed before me ; but a wave of the air broke the 
spell of its transitory but beautiful existence, and it was gone. It was 
like a dream of love. If there is one happy being in creation, it is the 
lover in the luxury of his visionary aspirations : if there is a single 
blissful moment, like a star sparkling in the shadowy firmament of life, 
it is that which discovers a long-nourished affection to be mutual. 

The moon, as she rides on through her infinity of space, has not a 
greater effect upon the ocean-tide than has the passion of love upon the 
tide of human thought — now permitting it to settle down into a state 
of temporary tranquillity — again, bidding it heave and swell, by the 
magic of its viewless power. Without it, what would be the world? As 
a creation without light ; yet possessing it, as we do, how does it dis- 
compose the soberest plans of reason ! How do the loftiest bulwarks 
of stern philosophy bow down and disappear before the fragrance of its 
breath ! It is the poetry of thought, when reason slumbers on her stately 
throne, or wanders away in happy dreams. It is scarcely to be defined, 
for it seems in a perpetual halo of soft light, which dazzles while it fasci- 
nates the mind's eye. It is to the spirit what sunshine is to the flower — 
luring the fragrance from its bosom, and bringing out all the energies 
of its young nature, or as the hand of beauty to the slumbering lute 
passing over the silent chords, till " it doth discourse most eloquent 
music." 

I had a young friend, just rising into manhood — fiery and unsettled 
as the wari'ior-steed in battle, his career was unguided by prudence or 
thought. A never-failing flow of spirits made him always agreeable — 
he was full of sense and frolic. He could bring a tear into your eye 
before the smile had left your lip — he was all hope and happiness. 

Suddenly he stood before me an altered being — his eye had grown 
melancholy and full of meditation. Its moisture was often succeeded 
by a flash ; and its fire again extinguished in the trembling tear. He 
shunned the rude clamour of the bustling world, and would steal away 
into some solitary recess, and in the still shade of the forest ponder on 
the sweetness of his own sorrow. His mind became almost a world of 
itself, and thousands of visions rose obedient, at the call of creative 
thought : his soul, lifted high on fancy's wing, would explore, in its 
wild and beautiful career, the fathomless regions of imagination, through 
all the variety of its magnificent domain. He loved deeply, devotedly. 
It was more than love ; it was adoration. The object of his passion 
was ail that woman could be. There is no object, in all creation; half so 



258 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

splendid as snct a being : the cliarms that are diffused throngh the whole 
universe seemed gathered together in her. 

When the sun is going down in the west, he leaves behind him a 
track of bright light; but it is insipid when compared to the light of her 
eye. The fragrance of the rose was not so delicious as the warmth of 
her breath — music could make no melody like the thrilling tones of her 
voice. Her motion was more graceful than the heave of the sea or the 
change of the cloud ; and the magic of mind, gleaming through all her 
words, and looks, and actions, shed around her a charm more grateful 
than Arabian incense. 

No wonder my hero bowed down before her; no wonder that the 
sound of her voice was always in his ear, that her image was before him 
in his daily occupations, and bore a part in the mysterious changes of 
his dreams. There was no affectation in her nature, and she confessed 
she loved him. They seemed created for each other — and who would 
have believed that fate — but I am digressing. 

There is something very melancholy in the reflection that any woman 
can die ; but to liim, that she should perish, was the very agony of de- 
spair. He had left her for a few days, intending when he returned to 
ask her hand. On the morning of his return, he sprang into the stage- 
coach, in a most delicious revery. He held no discourse with his fellow 
passengers, but wrapped himself up in a rich dream of anticipation. 
His heart was full of happiness. He thought himself, as he entered his 
house, too happy for a mortal man. He was preparing to pay her the 
first visit, and dwelling in his mind on her pleasing welcome, when her 
brother came to see him. He did not observe any thing peculiar about 
him at first, and not until the warm affectionate shake of the hand was 
over, did he notice that his eyes were filled with tears, and a dismal, 
gloomy, black crape hung from his hat. He started, and, in a hollow 
voice, that had a desolate dreariness in the very tone, he said, 

" Elizabeth is dead \" 

At first he was not comprehended. A vacant, horrid laugh, that 
echoed strangely through the still room, was his only answer ; then he 
repeated the words, and the features of my friend became pale and mo- 
tionless as marble ; then he sat down in a chair, and covered his face 
with his hands, but not a word — a breath broke the silence. There was 
something alarming in his calmness ; it seemed like the silence of the 
heavy, black cloud, just before it launches its destructive lightning from 
its bosom. He beckoned and wished to be alone. He ^oas left in solitude. 
I would not profane the subject by any attempt at describing his feel- 
ings. There was a dark, horrible confusion in his mind, like some 
accursed dream glaring around him, and the night rolled away its long 
hours of sleepless agony. 

The next day was the funeral ; and when the sun rose in his own 
glory, and all the '' pomp and circumstance" of day began to beam upon 
the face of nature, and the merry voice of men sometimes came upon 
the breeze, and the carts rattled rudely along, and all around was busi- 
ness and adventure, unaffected by the great event that had come like 
an ocean of scorching fire upon the paradise of his heart — he recollected, 



THE DREAM OF LOVE. 259 

and he said, '■'■ To-day is her funeral — lier funeral !" His benumbed mind 
dwelt upon the words, but there was something undefined and almost 
incomprehensible in them. She was to be buried at five in the after- 
noon. The clock struck four — he put on his hat, and went steadily 
to her house. He thought twenty times he heard her sweetly-toned 
laughing voice, as he passed along. He turned his head once or twice 
to see if she was not at his shoulder, but there was nothing, and he 
walked on. He saw the house, and sought every window — but Elizabeth 
was not there. He rang the bell — the servant came, weeping — he looked 
at him, and walked on. He passed into the parlour — the chair which she 
had occupied when he was there before was standing in the very same 
place — and there was her piano — he almost thought he heard music. He 
listened; a sob from the next room came like ice upon his heart, and 
he sat down. Her mother came into the room, — her face was serene in 
grief, but the first burst was over, and she was comparatively calm. She 
asked him if he would look at the corpse. He knew she was dead, but 
the blunt question shook every nerve in his frame, and seemed to breathe 
death upon his soul. He arose and followed the bereaved mother. There 
was an air of death in the apartment ; and a varnished coffin was on the 
table, a white cloth hung carefully at the head; a few friends sat and 
wept in silence, musing on the beauties and virtues of the being they 
were about to consign to the cold earth. He walked up to the table, 
and stood as still, and pale, and motionless, as the form that lay stretched 
before him. He would have torn away the veil that covered that face, 
but he could not : he felt that he might as well have attempted to heave 
a mountain from its rocky base. The mother saw — she felt — a mother 
can feel — ^and she silently uncovered that beautiful countenance. It 
broke upon him in all its loveliness. There was the same white fore- 
head — the sleeping eye — the cheek that he had kissed so fondly — the 
lips that had spoken such sweet sounds. He gazed at her corpse with 
intensity of thought. Her living image was before him — he saw her 
smiling — he beheld her in the graceful motion — now her figure passed 
before him, beautiful in the mazy dance — and now he gazed into her full 
black eyes, and read unutterable things. He had a ring on his finger, a 
present from her — he tried to speak — he looked at the ring, then at her — ■ 
agony swelled his heart ; he gave one long gaze — and looked no more. 

He knew not how, but he stood by her grave, and they were bearing 
the coffin towards the dark narrow pit — a heap of fresh earth was piled 
at its side. Some one said '' Where are the cords V He heard the 
answer, "Here they are;" and then the coffin was gradually let down 
into the bottom of the grave. It sat firmly on the ground, and he heard 
a voice say, " There that is right — throw up the rope.'^ Then there was 
the sound, as if the orders were obej^ed : in the act of doing it, a few 
grains of sand and pebble dropped upon the coffin — then all was still — • 
then a handful of soft, damp, heavy clay, was shovelled down. Oh, 
that sound ! that solemn, dreary sound of utter desolation ! It broke 
the horrid spell that kept his voice silent, and his eye dry : his L"p 
began to quiver — a sob heaved his aching breast — large tears gushed 



260 FIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

from his eyes — he stretched out his hands in an agony of weeping, and 
grasped an old gentleman's nose, in the stage-coach, where he was sleep- 
ing, and gave occasion for Obadiah to observe, 

"Verily, friend, when thou hast sufficiently amused thyself with my 
hose, perhaps thou wilt return it to its rightful owner." 

The whole horrible creation of his fancy passed away like a mist; his 
heart bounded within him, and he soon took sweet revenge upon those 
wicked lips that had been so cold and still, yet so beautiful, in the dark- 
ness of his dream. 



THE MIRROR OF LIFE. 

The following observations on a looking-glass, made at an advanced 
period of life, convey a moral reflection, which, if duly weighed, may 
prove a salutary warning against indulging those deceitful dreams which 
too frequently grow on the mirthful scenes and careless indolence of 
youth : — " This piece of furniture brings before me an epitome of life. 
When I first looked on it, this identical article, being then such as it 
now appears, presented to my view a rosy-faced, laughing little boy. A 
few years passed away, and it reflected the image of a growing heedless 
youth, full of health, and exhibiting all the animation of joyous hope. 
At a subsequent period I again looked on it, and saw a man. Boundless 
expectation had now been brought down to calm satisfaction. I had no 
further good to expect ; the first throb of exultation was over, but fear 
and disgust were unknown. More advanced in years, I saw one of 
middle-aged appearance, whose aspect was soured by the disappoint- 
ments and vexations of the world, but yet cheered with hope and elate 
with conscious integrity. Now this object, which originally reflected 
my infant mirth, enables me to see a picture of declining life, a faded 
remnant of humanity, and a living record of mournful error." 



HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN. 

Dr. Dwight closes a sermon "on the happiness of heaven," with the 
following beautiful simile : — "To the eyes of man the sun appears a pure 
light ; a mass of unmingled gloi-y. ¥/^ere we to ascend with a continued 
flight towards this luminary, and could, like the eagle, gaze directly on 
its lustre, we should in our progress behold its greatness continually 
enlarge, and its splendour become every moment more intense. As we 
rose through the heavens, we could see a little orb, changing gradually, 
into a great world ; and, as we advanced nearer and nearer, should behold 
it expanding every way, until all that was before us became a universe 
of excessive and universal glory. Thus the heavenly inhabitant will, at 
the commencement of his happy existence, see the divine system filled 
with magnificence and splendour, and arrayed in glory and beauty; and, 
as he advances over and through the successive periods of duration, will 
behold all things more and more luminous, transporting, and sun-like 
-for ever." 



DEATH OF JOHN ADAMS. 261 



DEATH OF JOHN ADAMS. 

At lengtli the day approached when this eminent patriot was to be 
summoned to another world ; and, as if to render that day for ever me- 
morable in the annals of American history, it was the day on which the 
illustrious Jefferson was himself, also, to terminate his distinguished 
earthly career. That day was the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration 
of independence. 

Until within a few days previous, Mr. Adams had eshibited no indi- 
cations of a rapid decline. The morning of the fourth of July, 1826, he 
was unable to rise from his bed. Neither to himself, or his friends, 
however, was his dissolution supposed to be so near. He was asked to 
suggest a toast, appropriate to the celebration of the day. His mind 
seemed to glance back to the hour in which, fifty years before, he had 
voted for the Declaration of Independence, and with the spirit with which 
he then raised his hand, he now exclaimed, " Independence for ever." 
At four o'clock in the afternoon he expired. Mr. Jefferson had departed 
a few hours before him. 

They departed cheered by the benediction of their country, to whom 
they left the inheritance of their fame, and the memory of their bright 
example. If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in 
the contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how resplen- 
dent and sublime is the transition from gloom to glory ! Then, glancing 
through the same lapse of time, in the condition of the individuals, we 
see the first day marked with the fulness and vigour of youth, in the 
pledge of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour, to the cause 
of freedom and of mankind; and on the last, extended on the bed of 
death, with but sense and sensibility left to breathe a last aspiration to 
Heaven of blessing upon their country. May we not humbly hope, that 
to them, too, it was a pledge of transition from gloom to glory, and 
that while their mortal vestments were sinking into the clod of the 
valley, their emancipated spirits were ascending to the bosom of their 
God? 



Makriage Ceremony. — To see two rational beings, in the glow of 
youth and hope, which invests life with the halo of happiness, appear 
together, and openly acknowledging their preference for each other, 
voluntarily enter into a league of perpetual friendship, and call heaven 
and earth to witness the sincerity of the solemn vows — to think of the 
endearing connection, the important consequences, the final separation, 
the smile that kindles to ecstaey at their union must at length be 
quenched in the tears of mourning ! — but while life continues, they are 
to participate in the same joys, to endure the like sorrows, to rejoice 
and weep in unison. This is the most interesting spectacle that social 
life exhibits. 



262 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

EXTRACT FEOM AN ADDRESS ON TEMPERANCE. 

BY EEV. F. A. EOSS. 

The evils whicli strong drink has brouglit upon us are so tremendous, 
and threaten such overwhelming ruin to the morals and the liberties of 
our country, that good men tremble in all the land. Intemperance, like 
every other mischief, has been as the letting out of waters. It was, com- 
paratively, a trifling nuisance a few years ago. Every man felt confi- 
dent, he could, with ease, and when he pleased, turn the polluted stream 
from his own door. But a flood is now rolling over our fields. It has 
swelled into a mighty inundation. In some parts of the land the low 
grounds are almost covered. And on every high place we see our wisest 
men gathered together. We hear their warning voices. The trumpet 
notes of the patriot and the Christian are rolling through the valleys 
and swelling to the tops of the mountains. They tell us the fountains 
of the great deep are breaking up. They call for the help of every man, 
and for the help of the Lord. Yes, for the help of the Lord. For the 
heavens have gathered blackness, and the thunders of God proclaim that 
he has watched upon our iniquities, and poured this curse upon us ; and 
that he has opened the windows of his wrath, and holds in the hollow of 
his hand the waters of a more awful storm. 

Drunkenness, it is said by those who have looked into the subject, ig 
a greater scourge to the United States, than the sword of an invading 
army. I believe the fact. And you will not think the remark too 
strong, when I sum up only a few of the particulars which compose that 
mass of misery, of which intemperance is the cause. What think you 
of the quantity of ardent spirits drunk every year in the United States ? 
It is sixty millions of gallons ! Suppose that you see this flood of liquor 
collected into a river flowing from one end of the land to the other, and 
kept up to the high-water mark, by streams incessantly running into it 
from the cellars of the merchant and from the distilleries of the farmer. 
Suppose that you see two hundred thousand common drmikards, and 
three hundred thousand occasional drunkards, crowding the shores of 
this river, men and women, from every rank in society, and from 
almost every age. See, while some drink, and laugh, and drink again, 
and the eye begins to redden and to reel, and the step to totter, and the 
tongue to grow thick — others are prostrated in all the disgusting circum- 
stances of brutal intoxication. Listen to the shouts of riot — the oaths 
and blasphemy. Look upon the hideous pollutions, the contentions, the 
babblings, the wounds and blood which fill this region of the shadow of 
death. 

We hear there is a river which winds through the beautiful plains of 
Hindostan, and that millions gather around it, and worship the waters. 
And we shudder when we are told that thousands of human beings are 
the ofi"erings of this superstition. But this stream I have shown you, 
haunted by drunkardS; is a more awful flood than the Ganges. The 



EXTRACT FEOM AN ADDRESS ON TEMPERANCE. 263 

Hindoo believes wlien he drinks of this river, that health, and beauty, 
and long life will be given to him. The drunkard knows that disease, 
and deformity, and death, are in the streams he quaffs. The Hin- 
doo is persuaded his sins are washed away in the consecrated water ; 
and although the blood of men is the price of his imaginary bliss, he 
believes the victims live again in heaven, and he thinks he sees the 
favour of his god, in brighter skies, and greener fields, and more abun- 
dant harvests. But the drunkard has not this faith. He looks around 
him on a shore that is cursed, and scorched, and withered. He looks 
up to a sky of blackness, and darkness, and tempest — that burns with 
fire, and is horrid with shapes of despair. He knows he drinks damna- 
tion. For every wretch, swept oiF by the burning billows which roll at 
his feet, utters shrieks that are full of the torments of hell. This river, 
surrounded by drunkards in horrid worship, is not in our land. But 
what if it is not ? Is the quantity of ardent spirits the less enormous, 
because we do not see it gathered together in one canal, running from 
Maine to Louisiana, but collected in the hogshead, in the cask, in the 
bottle, in every city, in every village, in every tavern by the' wayside, 
on the sideboards of the rich, and on the tables of the poor ? Is the 
number of drunkards the less appalling, because they are not mustered 
into a vast reeling and roaring crowd, around one great reservoir of grog, 
but cover all the land, and, like the frogs of Egypt, have crawled into 
every house, and pollute our kitchens, our parlours, and our beds ? Are 
the habits of drunkards the less abominable that they are not confined to 
one place, but are exposed to the pure eye of the sun everywhere ? That 
ten thousand places where their god is found are crowded with wretched 
worshippers ? That the morning and evening light witnesses the deep 
tavern debauch — the silent closet dram ? That every hour of the night 
sees drunkards, in crowds, stumbling out of damp and smoky cellars — ■ 
floundering from the muddy swine-tramped doors of distilleries — groping 
their way in fence corners — stretched out in piles of living filth — spurned 
at by every passing fool — here furious in quarrel and bloodshed — there 
more brutal in abuse of wife and children ? In one word, is drunkenness 
fraught with any the less ruin to the body and the soul, because we see 
it at the court-house — on the muster-ground — at the place of election — 
along the street — in the road — in our most private rooms — that it is 
a familiar acquaintance ; so familiar, that, even moral men — yea, reli- 
gious men, can, not only look upon a drunkard without abhorrence, but 
can even laugh at his staggering steps, his bloated face, his stupid speech, 
and all the other melancholy circumstances, which exhibit man, in this, 
his most degraded state ! 

Allow me to dwell for a moment upon one of these consequences of 
intemperance. Have you ever visited a mad-house ? Then you remem- 
ber with what painful curiosity, mingled with fear, you followed the 
keeper along the solemn passages — and your oft-repeated question : Sir, 
is there no danger ? At length the key grates in the lock of a small 
door. It opens ; and with beating heart, and breath suspended by awe, 
you found yourself in the cell of the maniac. He stands just before 



264 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

you — a man in the prime of life; his form is grand ; his high and polished 
brow, and every other expressive feature, indicate the powerful mind 
Dature had given him. You know him. Yes, you remember when he 
was blessed with wealth, an affectionate wife, and happy children ; — when 
senates hearkened to his wisdom, and when his integrity and kindness 
had drawn around him many friends. You now see him chained. That 
eye, which shone with the lustre of reason, now rolls upon you in the 
wildness of phrenzy. That mouth, which poured words of fire into the 
hearts of patriots, or spoke of things true, and honest, and just, and pure, 
to listening sons and daughters, now curses man, and blasphemes Grod. 
Strong drink has bound this noble man. His estate is gone. His wife 
is dead of a broken heart ; and his children receive their bread from the 
hand of charity. 

There are many thousands of deranged men and women, confined in 
these houses of wo, in the United States, and from examination it is 
ascertained that one-third of their number have been brought to that 
most melancholy state by intemperance. 

Let me conduct you to another house peopled with the victims of 
strong drink. It is a more awful place than the one we have just left. 
See the arched gateway frowns before us. Two enormous doors — one 
of iron, the other of oak, creak upon their huge hinges for our quick en- 
trance. They are instantly relocked behind us, and we stand by the side 
of the stern overseer within the walls of a penitentiary. It is a dismal 
place. The towering walls are too high to be scaled — too thick for the 
crow-bar ; and the resolute guard, with his musket and bayonet, stands 
ready to kill. All around are rows of cells, one above another. Some 
of them dungeons, made for the worst among the bad — from whose dark 
chambers we hear the clanking of fetters. Into these we will not go. 
We see villains enough around us. How numerous they are ; — how hard 
they labour; — how coarse the bread they eat; — how ignominious they 
look ! A coarse woollen cap conceals, but cannot hide their shaved 
heads. Their faces are fair from long confinement. Their eyes are 
turned away from us, in shanie, in remorse, in sullen contempt ; and yet 
as we pass by them, see how industriously they ply the chisel, the saw, 
and the sledge. We can hardly realize that they are not fit to mix with 
honest men. But they are not fit to be free;- the whole State has said 
so. Here are thieves of every name. Here is the wretch who fired his 
neighbour's house, and stood afar ofi", and laughed when he saw the ascend- 
ing flames, and heard the screams of the burning children. Here 
is the son who shot his father, and the father who murdered his son. 
Here is the husband who killed his wife ; — the wife who poisoned her 
husband. Here is the adulterer, who slew her whom he had disho- 
nored. Here is he who stabbed the virgin whom he found where there 
was none to save her when she cried. Under that cap we see the face 
of the boy. There is the old man whose trembling walk belies the 
fierceness of his soul. Here is he who did the deed from ruffian thirst 
of blood. And look ! there is one poor, haggard, miserable wretch, 
whose bearing shows he was once a gentleman. 

There are many of these huge asylums of guilt. There is a jail iu 



EXTRACT FROM AN" ADDRESS ON TEMPERANCE. 265 

every county. The number of criminals is not less than forty-Sve thou- 
sand ! What a multitude of miserable men ! What inconceivable wo 
they have caused — the blood, the tears, the broken hearts — alas ! we 
cannot grasp the enormous wretchedness. 

But it seems walls of stone, pallets of straw, years of hard labour, the 
dungeon, and the chain, are not enough to show the crime of him who 
has sinned against the laws. Ever and anon we hear the deep sound 
of the muffled drum j we see the vast crowd, the long files of soldiers iu 
measured march, the cart, the coffin, the condemned man, the rope, the 
gallows tree. One moment of awful silence — and — all is over. " He 
who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed I" Who 
can console the mother ? Where shall the degraded father hide his 
head ? 

Strong drink has filled these prisons, and built that gallows. The 
vast majority of ci'iminals are such from intemperance. Ye who love 
the bottle, consider what may be your end. Ye who hold the bottle to 
your neighbour's mouth — hearken to the truth ! Ye are accountable to 
Almighty God for all this ruin ! 

Awful is the malefactor's end ; yet the ordinary death of the drunk- 
ard is scarcely less miserable. His wild cry for help, rising over the mid- 
night water, startles the traveller. An empty boat drifts past, — for a 
moment, by the moonlight, the stranger sees a hand and an arm above 
a dark struggling mass — it utters a bubbling sound, and sinks. How 
many drunkards are frozen to death every winter ! See that crowd rush- 
ing into a house from which the screams of a woman and her children 
are heard. The husband in a fit has fallen into the fire, and lies half 
consumed on his own hearth. See that melancholy light which streams 
from the shattered windows of yonder old dilapidated shed. It is mid- 
night. A drunkard is dying, surrounded by his wretched family. He 
has not been sober before for years. His constitution can bear the burn- 
ing stream no longer. He must die. He knows it. He knows he has 
blasted the earthly hopes of the woman who kneels weeping by his bed. 
He knows he has reduced his children to rags. He knows he has sin- 
ned against God. He dares not think of heaven. Time, probation, in- 
finite mercy, have been despised. Eternity, dark, fiery, interminable 
eternity, rolls its horrors over his soul. Let us not hear his execrations 
of despair. Let us not look upon the agonies of his end. 

Ten thousand men die annually from the effects of ardent spirits. 
" Some are killed instantly; some die a lingering, gradual death ; some 
commit suicide ; and some are actually burnt up with internal fire ! The 
combustion of the human body from the use of ardent spirits is a well- 
authenticated fact." Ten thousand drunkards go every year from this 
land to the bar of God ! Ten thousand drunkards annually swell the 
army of the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, 
and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and liars, which have 
their part in the lake that burneth with fixe and brimstone ; which is the 
second death ! I have not time to speak of the misery of one hundred 
and fifty thousand paupers, more than half of whom owe their degradation 
to intemperance ! I cannot count the widows and orphans stript of com- 

X 



266 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

fort and affluence ! I cannot estimate the wounded spirits of extended 
relatives ! I cannot sum up the wealth thrown away, of which the mil- 
lions paid for the poison constitute but an item ! I cannot briug you 
the dockets of every court, and show you that drunkenness has piled the 
suits that are there. I cannot show you all the stains of this moral 
leprosy which has streaked society with spots, redder, and more indelible 
and infectious than those which polluted the houses of Israel ! I have 
given you only a few facts. But I have given enough to make every 
good man deeply consider what he ought to do, to help to remove this 
evil from the land. I have given you my opinion — and would to God I 
could lift up my voice, loud and omnipotent as that which shall wake 
the dead, and stamp the solemn admonition, not only upon every heart 
in this house, but upon every heart in the laud — touch not, taste 

NOT, HANDLE NOT THE CUP OF DEATH. * * * * 

Banish ardent spirits from your houses. Do not drink them — do not 
sell them — do not make them, and we shall become a sober people. 
The fearful men, and the hostile men, tell us we cannot put down the 
evil. But we can. Much has been done already. More than one hun- 
dred thousand men are now organized in temperance societies. And 
whole states are beginning to feel the blessed influence of their exertions. 
The waves of death have swelled high, and foamed, and roared; but a 
voice has said, " Peace, be still.-" 

The dove has come back to the ark with the olive sign, that the 
waters are abating. Let us then not be faithless, but believing. Let us 
hear the warning call. Let us come up to the help of the Lord against 
the mighty ; and we shall see all the face of the ground dry. The long 
covered valleys shall be green. And God will spread his bow from 
mountain top to mountain top, all radiant with the promise, that the 
vial which he has poured out upon us shall not be poured out again. 
We sliall prevail. The evil which has crushed the hopes of so many 
families — the evil which has clothed the children of God in deepest 
mourning — the evil which has oftenest insulted, grieved, quenched, 
blasphemed the Spirit of mercy — the evil that with widest sweep has 
depopulated earth and peopled hell, shall be put down. This land, 
overshadowed by the wings of the Almighty, shall not belong to drunk- 
ards. Five hundred thousand drunkards now pollute it ; but their places 
shall be filled by men of temperance. The victims of intemperance fill 
our asylums of penury, and madness, and crime ; but the gospel shall 
be preached to the poor; liberty shall be proclaimed to the captive, and 
the prison shall be opened to them that are bound. Thirty millions of 
dollars annually are now expended for strong drink; but this wealth 
shall be scattered over the land, to cause men to be sober, industrious, 
moral, and religious. Our children's children shall see all sober men. 
They shall not behold a drunkard. They shall know intemperance only 
as the crime of their fathers. 

My hearers, will you all help us? Ye, who have lived long, and 
whom the Lord has preserved from this great temptation, 'will you help 
uii ? Te, who make and expound our laws, and defend our liberties and 
our lives, will you help us ? Ye young men^ whom God especially ad- 



A DREADEUL WORM. 267 

monislies to be sober-minded, and of whose blood the destroyer is most 
greedy, loill you help us ? Ye, whom we love as mothers, as wives, and 
as sisters, and whose influence is mightier than all, loill you help tis ? 
I ask your help upon the principle I have advocated — the principle of 
ENTIRE ABSTINENCE. Adopt this maxim ; — adhere to it faithfully — 
urge it upon your children — press it upon your neighbors — pray for 
the aid of God ; and we shall prevail. 



A DEEADFUL WORM. 

Who has not heard of the rattlesnake or copperhead ? An unex- 
pected sight of either of these reptiles will make even the lords of 
creation recoil. But there is a species of worm found in various parts 
of this state, which conveys a poison, of a nature so deadly, that, when 
compared with it, the venom of the rattlesnake is harmless. To guard 
ou,r readers against this foe to human kind, is the object of the present 
communication. 

This worm varies much in size. It is frequently an inch through ; 
but as it is rarely seen, except when coiled, its length can hardly be 
conjectured. It is of a dead lead colour, and generally lives near a spring, 
or small stream of water, and bites the unfortunate people who are in 
the habit of going there to drink. The brute creation it never molests. 
They avoid it with the same instinct that teaches the animals of Peru to 
shun the deadly Cova. Several of these reptiles have long infested our 
settlement, to the misery and destruction of many of our citizens. I 
have therefore had frequent opportunities of being the melancholy spec- 
tator of the effects produced by the subtle poison which this worm 
infuses. The symptoms of its bite are terrible. The eyes of the patient 
become red and fiery, his tongue swells to an immoderate size, and 
obstructs his utterance, and delirium of the most horrid character quickly 
follows. 

Sometimes, in his madness, he attempts the destruction of his dearest 
friends. If the sufferer has a family, his weeping wife and helpless 
infants are not unfrequently the objects of his frantic fury. In a word, 
he exhibits to the life all the detestable passions that rankle in the bo- 
som of a savage ; and such is the spell in which his senses are bound, 
that no sooner is the unhappy patient recovered from the paroxysm of 
insanity, occasioned by one bite, than he seeks out his destroyer, for the 
sole purpose of being bitten again. I have seen a good old father, his 
locks as white as snow, his step slow and trembling, beg in vain of his 
only son to quit the lurking-place of the worm. My heart bled when 
he turned away, for I knew the hope fondly cherished, that his son would 
be to him the staff of his declining years, had supported him through 
many a sorrow. Youths of Missouri ! would you know the name of this 
reptile ? It is the worm of the still. — Missouri Paj)er. 



>68 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



GENERAL HAMILTON. 

In the year 1804, General Hamilton, who had just been appointed 
ambassador from the United States to Paris, got involved in a political 
dispute with Colonel Aaron Burr, then Vice President. Dr. Cooper had 
published a pamphlet, in which he said, '' General Hamilton and Dr. 
Kent say, that they consider Colonel Burr as a dangerous man, and one 
unfit to be trusted with the reins of government." In another place the 
same v/riter says, " General Hamilton has expressed of Colonel Burr opi- 
nions still more despicable." 

The last passage excited the resentment of Colonel Burr, who de- 
manded from General Hamilton ''a prompt and unqualified acknowledg- 
ment or denial of the expression, which could justify this interference 
on the part of Dr. Cooper." General Hamilton admitted the first state- 
ment, which he contended was fairly within the bounds prescribed in 
cases of political animosity, and objected to being called on to retrace 
every conversation which he had held either publicly or confidentially in 
the course of fifteen years opposition. This would not satisfy Colonel 
Burr, who demanded satisfaction, and a meeting. 

On the evening before the duel. General Hamilton made his will, in 
which he enclosed a paper, containing his opinions of duelling, and ex- 
pressive of the reluctance with which he obeyed a custom so repugnant 
to his feelings. He says : 

'^ On my expected interview with Colonel Burr, I think proper to 
make some remarks, explanatory of ray conduct, motives, and views. I 
was certainly desirous of avoiding this interview, for the most cogent 
reasons. 

" First. My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the 
practice of duelling ; and it would ever give me pain to shed the blood 
of a fellow-creature, in a private combat, forbidden by the laws. 

" Secondly. My wife and children are extremely dear to me; and my 
life is of the utmost importance to them, in various views. 

'' Tliirdly. I feel a sense of obligation towards my creditors, who, in 
case of accident to me, by the forced sale of my property, may be in some 
degree sufferers. I did not think myself at liberty, as a man of probity, 
lightly to expose them to hazard. 

'■'■ Fourthly. I am conscious of no ill-will to Colonel Burr, distinct from 
political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and up- 
right motives. 

" Lastly. I shall hazard much, and can possibly gain nothing, by the 
issue of the interview." 

The parties met, and Colonel Burr's shot took fatal effect. General 
Hamilton had determined not to return the fire, but, on receiving the 
shock of a mortal wound, his pistol went off involuntarily in an opposite 
direction. Few individuals died more lamented than General Hamilton, 
whose funeral at New York was observed at that place with unusual 
respect and ceremony. All the public functionaries attended ; the bells, 



AMBITION BLASTED. 269 

muffled, tolled during the day; all business was suspended; and the 
principal inhabitants wore mourning for six weeks. . No death since 
that of Washington filled the republic with such deep and universal 
regret. 



AMBITION BLASTED. 

Every one acquainted with the public men of our country must know 
something of Aaron Burr, of this city, once Vice President of the United 
States. His history exhibits a striking instance of blasted ambition. 
Of a most persuasive eloquence and bland manners, with a deep know- 
ledge of the human heart, Aaron Burr looked forward in his earlier days to 
the highest offices and distinctions of the republic. He had attained the 
highest but one. But before his dark and searching eye there stood one 
obstacle to his ascent ; it was Hamilton. The illustrious Hamilton — who 
had weathered the storms of the Revolution by the side of Washington, 
and who had saved the nation m her councils that Washington saved by 
his sword and Fabian prudence — was a patriot too incorruptible to look 
coldly on and see the rise of an unprincipled spirit, whose intellectual 
capacity only equalled his want of principle. To the eye of Hamilton, 
Burr was, in politics, what Benedict Arnold had been in the field; and 
his opposition to his designs partook of that keen and stern character 
which ever made Hamilton so terrible to the enemies of the true rights 
of the country. 

They met, at length, on " the dark and bloody ground," about two 
miles above Hoboken, on the Jersey shore, opposite this city. Hamilton 
fell ; and as he fell, the earthly prospects of Burr darkened irretriev- 
ably. 

Immediately after this catastrophe, the conduct of Burr began to excite 
attention. He frequently took sudden, and rapid, and distant journeys, 
disguised so as not to be known on the road. One week he would be 
seen in his office in New York ; the next in a distant city as if he had 
dropped from the clouds. It was at first supposed that he was siiifering 
the agonies of remorse, for the murder of Hamilton ; but the eye of 
government soon detected the preparation for some design of violence. 
Arms and men had been gathered at different points, either for a divi- 
sion of the United States, or for a descent upon Mexico, or for both 
objects blended. He was arrested in the remote West, and carried in 
irons for many hundred miles through a country over whose senate he 
had presided as the second officer of government, to the place designated 
for his trial. He was acquitted of the charge of treason, but the irrever- 
sible sentence of public opinion had gone forth against him. He became 
a wanderer in foreign lands. 

Over a few of these vagrant years of his life a deep obscurity rests. 
He returned, however, to New York, the scene of his former glory and 
aspirations. Here he has spent his life with but little notice or distinc- 
tion ; and without any more influence over the public mind, than if he 



270 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

had been frozen into a statue of stone the moment that he sent the death- 
shot to the bosom of Hamilton. 

Sometimes, now, a little, bowed-down man, with his eyes fastened on 
the pavement, may be seen hurrying along in the vicinity of Eeed street. 
His hair, which was once black as the raven's wing, is now blanched 
with the whiteness of snow. His eyes, which once shot lightning in 
their soul-searching glances, are now lustreless and dull. That man is 
Aaron Burr. — New York Paper, 1833. 



FEMALE INTREPIDITY. 



When the war of extermination between the Indians and Kentuckians 
was at its height, those who inhabited the back parts of the state of 
Kentucky were obliged to have their houses built very strong, with 
loopholes all around, and doors always fastened, so as to repel any 
attack from the Indians. While the owner of one of these domestic 
fortresses was with his slaves, at work on the plantation, a negro who 
was posted near the house saw a party of Indians approaching. He 
immediately ran to the house, and the foremost Indian after him. The 
Indian was the fleetest, and as the door opened to admit the negro, they 
both jumped in together. The other Indians being some distance be- 
hind, the door was instantly closed by the planter's wife within, when the 
Indian and negro grappled. Long and hard was the struggle, for, as in 
the case of Fitz James and Roderick Dhu, the one was the strongest and 
the other more expert, but strength this time was the victor, for they 
fell, the Indian below ; when the negro, placing his knees on his breast, 
and holding his hands, kept him in that position, until the woman, seizing 
a broad axe, and taking the Indian by his long hair, at one blow severed 
his head from his body. The negro, then seizing the guns, fired them at 
the other Indians, which, as fast as discharged, were loaded again by the 
planter's wife, until the party from the field, hearing the firing, arrived, 
and the Indians took to flight. 



COMFORTS OF HUMAN LIFE. 

BY DK. AKNOTT. 

The following picture is not overcharged, and might be much extended. 
Nearly each individual of the civilized millions that cover the earth, 
may have the same enjoyments as if he were the single lord of all. 
A single man of small fortune may cast his looks around him, and say 
with truth and exultation, I am lodged in a house that afibrds me con- 
veniences and comforts which even a king could not command some 
centuries ago. Ships are crossing the seas in every direction, to bring 
me what is useful from all parts of the earth. In China, men are gather- 



IMMENSITY OF CREATION. 271 

ing the tea-leaf for me ; in America, they are plantiug cotton for me ; 
in the West India IsLinds, they are preparing my siigar and my coifee ; 
in Italy, they are feeding silkworms for me; in Saxony, they are shear- 
ing the sheep to make me clothing ; in England, powerful steam engines 
are spinning and weaving for me, and making cutlery for me, and pump- 
ing the mines, that minerals useful to me may be produced. I have 
post-coaches running day and night, on all the roads, to carry my cor- 
respondence ; I have roads, and canals, and bridges, to bear the fuel for 
my winter fire. Then I have editors and printers, who daily send what 
is going on throughout the world among all these people who serve me. 
And in a corner of my house, I have books J the miracle of all my pos- 
sessions, more wonderful than the wishing-cap of the Arabian tales ; for 
they transport me instantly, not only to all places, but to all times. By 
my books I can conjure up before me the vivid existence of all the great 
and good men of antiquity ; and for my individual satisfaction, I can 
make them act over again the most renowned of their exploits ; the ora- 
tors declaim for me ; the historians recite ; the poets sing ; and from 
the equator to the pole, or from the beginning of time until now, by my 
books I can be where I please. 



IMMENSITY OF CREATION. 

He who through vast immensity can pierce, 

See worlds on worlds compose one universe ; 

Observe how system into system runs, 

What other planets circle other suns ; 

What varied beings people every star, 

May tell why God has made us as we are. — Pope. 

SoiME astronomers have computed that there are no less than 
75,000,000 of suns in this universe. The fixed stars are all suns, 
having, like our sun, numerous planets revolving round them. The 
solar system, or that to which we belong, has about thirty planets, pri- 
mary and secondary, belonging to it. The circular field of space which 
it occupies is in diameter three tliousand six hundred millions of miles, 
and that which it controls much greater. That sun which is nearest 
neighbour to ours is called Sirius, distant from our sun about twenty- 
two billions of miles. Now, if all the fixed stars are as distant from 
each other as Sirius is from our sun; or if our solar system be the 
average magnitude of all the systems of the 75 millions of suns, what 
imagination can grasp the immensity of creation! Every sun of the 
75 millions controls a field of space about 10,000,000,000 of miles in 
diameter. Who can survey a plantation containing 75 millions of cir- 
cular fields, each ten billions of miles in diameter! Such, however, is 
one of the plantations of Him " who has measured the waters in the 
hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and compre- 
hended the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance;" he who " sitting upon the orbit of 
the earth, stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them 
out as a tent to dwell in." 



272 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE BATTLE OF TEENTON. 



Wild was the night, and roaring wide 
jRoU'd on Delaware's stormy tide, 
The drifting ice from side to side. 

Driving and crushing fearlessly. 

Then, through the wintry tempest's moan, 
Flourish'd the swelling trumpet tone, 
Their little barks, the host unknown. 

Are launching forth impetuously. 

Oft o'er the flood was heard to roar. 
As through the drift some barges bore, 
"With clanging axe and clashing oar. 

Bursting their way resistlessly. 

For high the chieftain's signal bright, 
Blazed ahead, and who to-night 
"Would tamely lag behind that light. 

That leads to death or victory. 

Oh ! what's this lonely martial power. 
That in this wild unwonted hour, 
'VS'^hile darkness and wild tempests lower, 
Puts forth so stern and fearlessly ? 

'Tis Liberty's last hope below, 

Through flood and storm they seek the foe. 

To strike the bravest, mightiest blov/. 

That e'er was struck for victory. 

This awful hour the die is cast. 
For Trenton they are toiling fast. 
When every heart must bleed its last. 
Or save expiring Liberty. 

Loud was the storm o'er all the land. 
And cold it swept the darksome strand. 



"When, struggling from their barks, the band 
Muster'd in dread serenity. 

Then roar'd a shot — who would not die, 
To mix with hearts so bold and high? 
For "Battle!" "Battle!" was the cry 

That thunder'd loud and cheerfully. 

" On !" was the word — and grim, and dread, 
While all is silent as the dead. 
Save the quick march's hurried tread. 
The host is rushing rapidly. 

What do you glimmering watch-fires tell ? 
What distant sounds so faintly swell? 
What lonely voices cry "All's well," 
Amid the night's solemnity ? 

Huzza! — 'Tis Trenton! — Hark! that cry — 
That shriek of death !— The picket die !— 
A foeman's trump is pealing high! 

His drums are rolling furiously. 

" On ! on ! — we conquer or we die," 
Was Washington's resounding cry, 
And glorious was the glad reply. 

The shout of " Death or Victory." 

Oh, charge! charge ! on! — The strife is o'er. 
Swell, swell the burst of joy once more — 
Shout it to every sea and shore, 

The morning sun of Liberty. 

Millions, mid tyranny's alarms. 
Shall start to hear that music's charms. 
And shouting thousands shine in arms. 
To rival Trenton's chivalry. 



THE DEVOTED. 

It was a beautiful turn given by a great lady, who, being asked where her husband was, when he lay con- . 
cealed for having been deeply concerned in a conspiracy, resolutely answered, that she had hidden him. This 
confession caused her to be carried before the governor, who told her that nothing but confessing where she 
had hidden him could save her from the torture. " And will that do ?" said she. " Yes," replied the gover- 
nor, "I will pass my word for your safety on that condition." — " Then," replied she, " I have hidden him in, 
my HEART, where you may find him." 



Stekk faces were around her bent, and eyes of venge- 
ful ire. 

And fearful were the words they spake, of torture, 
stake, and fire ; 

Yet calmly in the midst she stood, with eye undimm' d 
and clear, 

And though her lip and cheek were white, she wore 
no sign of fear. 

"Where is thy traitor-spouse?" they said— a half- 
form'd smile of scorn. 

That curl'd upon her haughty lip, was back for an- 
swer borne ! — 

"Where is thy traitor-spouse ?" again in fiercer tone 
they said. 

And sternlypoiuted to therack, all rusted o'er with red. 

Her heart and pulse beat firm and free — but in a crim- 
son flood 

O'er pallid lip, and cheek, and brow, rush'd up the 
burning blood ! 

She spake ; — but proudly rose her tones as when in 
hall or bower, 

The haughtiest chief that round her stood had meekly 
own'd her power. 



" My noble lord is placed within a safe and sure re- 
treat." 

"Now tell us where, thou lady bright, as thou wouldst 
mercy meet ! 

Nor deem thy life can purchase his — he cannot 'scape 
our wrath. 

For many a warrior's watchful eye is placed o'er 
every path. 

" But thou mayst win his broad estates to grace thine 
infant heir. 

And life and honour for thyself— so thou his haunts 
declare." 

She laid her hand upon her he.irt ; her eye flash'd proud 
and clear, 

And firmer grew her haughty tread — " My lord is hid- 
den here ! 

" And if ye seek to view his form, ye first must tear away 

From round his secret dwelling-place these walls of 
living clay!" 

They quail'd beneath her lofty glance— they silent 
turn'd aside. 

And left her all unharm'd amidst her loveliness and 



DOMESTIC HAPPINESS. 273 



DOMESTIC HAPPINESS. 

If a happy marriage has given and ensures to man peace at hoine, let 
there be no dread of the caprices of chance ; his happiness is sheltered 
from the strokes of fortune. A wife, gentle and affectionate, sensible 
and virtuous, will fill his whole heart, and leave no room for sadness. 
What will he care for the loss of property when he possesses this 
treasure ? Is not his house sufficiently magnificent as long as she com- 
mands respect to it — splendid enough, as long as her presence adorns it ? 
A cottage where virtue dwells, is far superior to a palace ; it becomes a 
temple. 

If he were deprived of a high and valuable office, he would scarcely 
notice it, for he occupies the first and hest place in the heart of her he 
loves. If he be not separated from her, banishment itself cannot become 
to him an entire exile ; for in her person he views an image of his 
country. 

Through her exertions, order reigns in his household, as well as peace 
to the soul. If injustice or ingratitude irritate or grieve him, her caresses 
will appease, and her smiles console him. 

Her commendation is glory; she, too, is his conscience; he thinks 
himself good when he raises her affections, and great when she admires 
him. He sees in her reason personified, and wisdom in action, for she 
feels all that the philosophers of every age have only thoiight. 

As modest as the violet, she shuns display, and diffuses in the shades 
around her, the perfume of virtue and happiness. 

Labours, pains, pleasures, opinions, sentiments and thought are in 
common between them ; and, as she never expresses more or less than 
what she feels, he reads at a glance her thoughts, in her gestures ; and, 
even in her eyes, he can apply to her what used to be said of Pompey 
when young: " The thought was uttered before the voice had sounded." 

If he be ill, the double balm of love and friendship comes to his aid ; 
numberless delicate and affectionate attentions dispel uneasiness, and 
waken hope. Pain itself smiles upon tenderness, and again knows 
pleasure. 

If poverty should compel him to labour for a livelihood; if the 
fatigues of war or of state affairs should have exhausted his strength, 
or enfeebled his health, she alleviates the toil by sharing it. 

How easy and short does the voyage of life appear with such a com- 
panion ! As in the Fortunate isles, he always finds in the same time 
buds, flowers, and fruits ! His summer has retained and preserved the 
charms of his spring; and old age has drawn near without his perceiv- 
ing its approach, 

EPITAPH ON AN INFANT. 

He took the cup of life to sip, 

For bitter 'twas to drain ; 
He put it meekly from his lip, 

And went to sleep again. 
18 



274 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



PASSAGE OF THE POTOMAC THEOUGH THE BLUE 

RIDGE. 

BT JEFFERSON. 

The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Bidge is perhaps one of 
the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point 
of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along 
the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left 
approaches the Potomac, seeking a passage also. In the moment of their 
junction, they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and 
pass off to the sea. The first glance at this scene hurries our senses into 
the opinion that this earth has been created in time ; that the moun- 
tains were formed first ; that the rivers began to flow afterwards ; that, 
in this place particularly, they have been dammed up by the Blue Bidge 
of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley ; 
that, continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, and 
have torn the mountain down, from its summit to its base. The piles 
of rock on each hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident 
marks of their disrupture and avulsion from their beds by the most 
powerful agents of nature, corroborate the impression. But the distant 
finishing which Nature has given to the picture is of a very difi"erent 
character. It is a true contrast to the foreground. It is as placid and 
delightful as that is wild and tremendous. For, the mountain being 
cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small 
catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance in the plain country, 
inviting you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to 
pass through the breach, and participate of the calm below. Here the 
eye ultimately composes itself; and that way, too, the road happens actu- 
ally to lead. You cross the Potomac above its junction, pass along its 
side through the base of the mountain for three miles, its terrible preci- 
pices hanging in fragments over you, and within about twenty miles 
reach Fredericktown, and the fine country round that. This scene is 
worth a voyage across the Atlantic. Yet here, as in the neighbourhood 
of the Natural Bridge, are people who have passed their lives within 
half a dozen miles, and have never been to survey these monuments of a 
war between rivers and mountains, which must have shaken the earth 
itself to its centre. 



The Mechanic. — If there is any situation truly enviable, it is that of 
an industrioiis mechanic, who, by his own unaided exertions, has esta- 
blished for himself a respectable place in society ; who, commencing in 
poverty, has been able by his skill and perseverance to overcome every 
obstacle, vanquish every prejudice, and build up for himself a reputation 
whose value is enhanced for others. And let it be remembered that 
this situation is attainable by all who have health and practical know- 
ledge of their business. It is a mistaken idea that fortune deals about 
her favours blindly, and with a reckless hand. Industry and virtuous 
ambition are seldom exerted in vain. 



GRANDEUR OF ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES. 275 



GRANDEUR OF ASTRONOMICxiL DISCOVERIES. 



It was a pleasant evening in the month of May, and my sweet child, 
my Rosalie and I, had sauntered up to the castle's top to enjoy the 
breeze that played around it, and to admire the unclouded firmament 
that glowed and sparkled with unusual lustre from pole to pole. The 
atmosphere was in its purest and finest state of vision ; the milky-way 
was distinctly developed throughout its whole extent; every planet and 
every star above the horizon, however near and brilliant, or distant and 
faint, lent its lambent light or twinkling ray to give variety and beauty 
to the hemisphere ; while the round, bright moon, so distinctly defined 
were the lines of her figure, and so clearly visible, (even the rotundity 
of her form,) seemed to hang off from the azure vault, suspended in 
midway air ; or stooping forward from the firmament her fair and radiant 
face, as if to court and return our gaze. 

We amused ourselves for some time, in observing through a telescope 
the planet Jupiter, sailing in silent majesty with his squadron of satellites 
along the vast ocean of space between us and the fixed stars; and admired 
the felicity of that design, by which those distant bodies had been par- 
celled out and arranged into constellations, so as to have served not only 
for beacons for the ancient navigator, but, as it were, for landmarks to 
astronomers of this day, enabling them, though in different countries, 
to indicate to each other with ease the place and motion of these planets, 
comets, and magnificent meteors which inhabit, revolve, and play in the 
intermediate space. 

We recalled and dwelt with delight on the rise and progress of the 
science of astronomy ; on that series of astonishing discoveries through 
successive ages, which display in so strong a light the force and reach 
of the human mind; and on those bold conjectures and sublime reveries, 
which seem to tower even to the confines of Divinity, and denote the 
high destiny to which mortals tend ; that thought, for instance, which 
is said to have been first started by Pythagoras, and which modern astro- 
nomers approve, that the stars which we call fixed, although they appear 
to us to be nothing more than large spangles of various sizes glittering on 
the same concave surface, are, nevertheless, bodies as large as our sun, 
shining, like him, with original, and not reflected light, placed at incal- 
culable distances asunder, and each star the solar centre of a system of 
planets, which revolve around it, as the planets belonging to our system 
do around the sun ; that this is not only the case with all the stars which 
our eyes discern in the firmament, or which the telescope has brought 
within the sphere of our vision, but, according to the modern improve- 
ments of this thought, that there are probably other stars whose light 
has not yet reached us, although light moves with velocity a million 
times greater than that of a cannon-ball ; that those luminous appear- 
ances which we observe in the firmament, like flakes of thin, white cloud, 
are windows, as it were, which open to other firmaments, far, far beyond 



276 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

the ken of Iiumau eye, or the power of optical instruments, lighted up, 
like ours, with hosts of stars or suns ; that this scheme goes on through 
infinite space, which is filled with thousands upon thousands of those 
suns, attended by ten thousand times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid 
motion, yet calm, regular, and harmonious, invariably keeping the paths 
pi;escribed to them ; and these worlds peopled with myriads of intelligent 
beings. 

One would think that this conception, thus extended, would be bold 
enough to satisfy the whole enterprise of the human imagination. But 
what an accession of glory and magnificence does Doctor Herschel super- 
add, when, instead of supposing all those suns fixed, and the motion 
confined to their respective planets, he loosens those multitudinous suns 
themselves from their stations, sets them all into motion with their 
splendid retinue of planets and satellites, and imagines them, thus at- 
tended, to perform a stupendous revolution, system above system, around 
some grander unknown centre, somewhere in the boundless abyss of 
space ! — and when, carrying on the process, you suppose even that centre 
itself not stationary, but also counterpoised by other masses in the im- 
mensity of space with which, attended by their accumulated trains of 

Planets, suns, and adamantine spheres. 
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense, 

it maintains harmonious concert, surrounding, in its vast career, some 

other centre still more remote and stupendous, which in its turn 

" You overwhelm me,'' cried Rosalie, as I was labouring to pursue 
the immense concatenation ; " my mind is bewildered and lost in the 
effort to follow you, and finds no point on which to rest its weary wings." 
"Yet there is a point, my dear Rosalie — the throne of the Most High. 
Imagine that the ultimate centre, to which this vast and inconceivably 
magnificent apparatus is attached, and around which it is continually 
revolving. Oh ! what a spectacle for the cherubim and seraphim, and 
the spirits of the just made perfect, who dwell on the right-hand of that 
throne, if, as may be, and probably is the case, their eyes are permitted 
to pierce through the whole, and take in, at one glance, all its order, 
beauty, sublimity, and glory, and their ears to distinguish that celestial 
harmony, unheard by us, in which those vast globes, as they roll in their 
orbits, continually hymn their Creator's praise." 



HISTORY OF THE PESTILENCE. 

There are seasons, in the history of nations and individuals, when 
the cup of .their iniquity is full, and when God can no longer mitigate 
or defer his anger. This period had come upon the Old World, when the 
waters of the universal deluge overflowed it. It had come upon Sodom, 
Tyre, Babylon, Carthage, and Jerusalem, when God so fearfully destroyed 
them. It had come upon the Amorites, Israelites, and Assyrians, when 
God swept them away in his fur}^. He is not wanting in means and 
instruments to accomplish the purposes of his indignation. All second- 



HISTORY OF THE PESTILENCE. 277 

ary causes are in his hands, and he employs them to accomplish his 
designs of judgment, as well as mercy. Sometimes he makes use of 
men as the rod of his anger. Think of the millions that have been 
swept into eternity by such men as Cyrus, Alexander, Julius Ga3sar, 
Tamerlane, Louis XIV., and Napoleon. Sometimes he employs the mate- 
rial creation to promote his vengeful designs. The sun, moon, and stars, 
the earth, the ocean, and the elements all conspire as the ministers of his 
rebuke. Fire and hail, snow and vapour, stormy winds and tempestuous 
billows, fulfil his word. Sometimes he withholds the rain of heaven, and 
takes away the fruits of the earth. Sometimes he sends the earthquake, 
the lightning, and the pestilence. 

The pestilence is emphatically his own messenger. It was so in va- 
rious epochs of the Jewish history, and has been so ever since. God 
has made the bodies of the dead lie in heaps before the eyes of the 
living, to admonish them of his displeasure. In an instance of the 
Jewish history, he destroyed seventy thousand men in the short space of 
a few hours. In another instance, the destroying angel cut off one 
hundred and eighfy-five thousand in a night. In the reign of Tarquini- 
us, the fifth king of Rome, a pestilence cut off the greater part of the 
Roman empire. About the time that Nehemiah repaired the walls of 
Jerusalem, not far from four hundred and thirty years before Christ, and 
about the second year of the Peloponnesian war, that pestilence called 
the great plague of Attica overran Ethiopia, Lydia, Egypt, Judea, 
Phoenicia, Syria, the whole Persian and Roman empires, Greece, and 
the Athenian States, and continued to rage for fifteen years. This is 
the plague of which Thucydides wrote, and Lucretius and Virgil sang, 
and is the first universal plague. Upon the ruin of Carthage, a pesti- 
lence spread over all Africa, and destroyed in Numidia alone eight hun- 
dred thousand. So grievous was this pestilence, that upwards of fifteen 
hundred dead corpses were carried through one gate of a single city in 
one day, and upwards of tiro hundred thousand died in a few days. 
Two years before the birth of Christ, a pestilence spread over all Italy, 
and raged with such fury that few or none remained to till the ground. 

Since the commencement of the Christian era, and in latter years, 
severe plagues have raged in England, Scotland, and Wales ; sometimes 
almost depopulating the principal cities of those kingdoms. In the 
second year of Claudius, the Roman emperor, so fearfully did the 
pestilence rage in England, that the living were scarcely able to bury 
the dead. In the year 180, in the reign of Commodus, and during the 
persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire, a pestilence spread 
over all Italy, Greece, and almost all the Roman empire. In the city 
of Rome alone, there were, for a considerable time together, tu-enti/ 
thousand buried a day. In the year 256, a pestilence raged in Ethiopia 
so universally, that it was impossible to calculate the number of the 
dead. In the year 311, during the persecutions under Maximilian, a 
pestilence raged that cut off from the army of that monarch five thou- 
sand a day. In the year 544, a universal pestilence began at Pelusium, 
in Egypt, and thence spread over the whole world, sparing neither age 
nor sex, family nor country, island nor mountain. In the second year 
Y 



278 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

of its fury it visited Constantinople, with such violence that, for a con- 
siderable time together, jive and sometimes teM tJiousand and upwards 
died daily. In one part of the world or another, it continued fifty-two 
years, so that the greatest part of mankind then living may be said to 
have been destroyed by it. In the year 717, a pestilence again visited 
Constantinople, and cut oiF in three years three hundred thousand souls. . 
In 825, in the reign of Louis the Pious, a plague destroyed almost all 
the inhabitants of France and Germany. In 836, it raged in Wales to 
such a degree that the country was covered with the carcasses of men 
and beasts. In 1346, a malignant disease broke out in Asia, that over- 
spread and wasted the inhabited earth. Three parts out of four scarcely 
survived, and in some places not one-twentieth part remained alive. 
Beginning with the year 1348, the same plague raged in England nine 
years; and in London alone, from January 1st to the 1st of July, de- 
stroyed one milKon five hundred and seventy -three thousand and seventy- 
four. In the year 1611, a pestilence again visited Constantinople, and 
destroyed tivo hundred thousand in five months. And still later, in the 
year 1665, was the great plague in London, which raged the year before 
in Egypt, Greece, Germany, Holland, and other kingdoms, and which 
destroyed in that city alone ninety-seven thousand in a single year. la 
the year 1720, in the city of Marseilles, from the 25th of August to 
the end of September, one thousand were swept off in a day. And in 
our own times, (during the year 1831,) the plague raged so irresistibly 
at Bagdad, that the city is almost desolated, and cannot probably be re- 
populated for ages. 



NUMBER OF DEATHS IN A YEAR. 

It is generally supposed that this earth is inhabited by one thousand 
millions of human beings, or thereabouts, and that thirty-three years 
make a generation ; and that therefore in thirty-three years die one 
thousand million. Thus the number who die on earth amounts to 

Each year thirty millions ; 

Each day eighty-six thousand ; 

Each hour thirty-sis hundred ; 

Each minute sixty ; 

Each second one. 
This calculation must necessarily strike us. If the mortality be so 
great every year and every hour, is it not probable that he who reflects 
on it may himself be one of those soon to swell the list of the dead ? 
It is at least certain that it ought to lead us to think seriously and often 
on this subject. Now, at this moment, one of our fellow-creatures is 
going out of the world, and before another hour is past, more than three 
thousand souls will have entered into an eternal state. 



HORRORS OF BATTLE. 279 



HORRORS OF BATTLE. 

The battle took place on the margin of the Niagara river, an exten- 
sive plain, which had once been covered with fine farms; but now, for- 
saken by the inhabitants, and desolated by war, it exhibited only a 
barren waste. The river at that place begins to acquire some of that 
terrific velocity with which it rushes over the awful precipice three 
miles below, creating one of the grandest natural curiosities in exist- 
ence ; the noise of the cataract is heard, and the column of foam dis- 
tinctly seen, from the battle-ground. On the other side, the field is 
bounded by a thick forest, but the plain itself presents a level smooth 
surface, unbroken by ravines, and without a tree or bush to intercept 
the view, or an obstacle to impede the movements of the hostile bodies, 
or to afford to either party an advantage. From this plain the Ame- 
rican camp was separated by a small creek. In the full glare of the 
summer sun on the morning of the 5th of July, the British troops were 
seen advancing to our camp, across the destined field of strife ; their 
waving plumes, their scarlet uniforms, and gilded ornaments exhibited 
a. gay and gorgeous appearance. Their martial music, their firm and 
rapid step, indicated elastic hopes and high courage. The Americans, 
inferior in number, were easily put in motion to meet the advancing 
foe : they crossed a small rude bridge, the only ovitlet from the camp, 
under a heavy fire of the enemy's artillery, and moved steadily to the 
spot selected for the engagement. The scene at this moment was beau- 
tiful and imposing. The British line, glowing with crimson hues, was 
stretched across the plain, flanked by pieces of brass ordnance, whose 
rapid discharge spread death over the field, and filled the air with thun- 
der ; while the clouds of smoke enveloped each extremity of the line, 
left the centre only exposed to the eye, and, extending on to the river 
on the one hand, and the forest on the other, filled the whole back- 
grounds of the landscape. The Americans were advancing in columns. 
They were new recruits, now led for the first time into action, and ex- 
cept a few officers, none of that heroic band had ever before seen the 
banner of a foe. But they moved steadily to their ground, unbroken 
by the galling fire; and platoon after platoon wheeled into line with the 
same graceful accuracy of movement which marks the evolution of the 
holiday parade, until the whole column was deployed into one extended 
front ; the officers carefully dressed the line with technical skill, and 
the whole brigade, evinced, by its deep silence, and the faithful preci- 
sion of its movements, the subordination of strict discipline, and the 
steady fii-mness of determined courage. Now the musketry of the 
enemy began to rattle, pouring bullets as thick as hail upon our ranks. 
Still not a trigger was drawn, not a voice was heard on our side, save 
the quick peremptory tones of command. General Scott rode along the 
line cheering and restraining his troops, then passed from flank to flank 
tc see if all was as he wished : he wheeled his steed into the rear of the 
troopS; and gave the command to " Fire." A voice was immediately 



280 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

heard in the British ranks — supposed to be that of their commander — 
exclaiming, " Charge the Yankees ! charge the BafFalo malitia ! charge ! 
charge I" The Amei-ican general ordered his men to " Support arms I" 

The British rushed forward with bayonets charged, but they were 
struck with amazement when they beheld those whom their commander 
tauntingly called " malitia" standing motionless as statues ; their muskets 
erect, their arms folded across their breasts, gazing calmly at their hostile 
ranks advancing furiously with levelled bayonets. It was a refinement 
of discipline rarely exhibited, and here altogether unexpected. The 
Americans stood until the enemy approached within a few paces ; until 
the foemen could see the fire flashing from each other's eyes, and each 
could read the expression of his adversary's face ; then deliberately as 
the word was given, the Americans levelled their pieces and fired — and 
the whole of the enemy's line seemed annihilated ! — Many were killed, 
many wounded, and some, rushing forward with powerful momentum, 
fell over their prostrate companions, or were thrown down by the weight 
of succeeding combatants. In one instance the ground occupied by that 
gallant line was covered by flying Britons ; in another, a second line 
had advanced to sustain the contest ; while the broken fragments of the 
first were rallied behind it. The " Bufi"alo malitia" were now the 
assailants, advancing with charged bayonets. Then it was that the 
young American chiefs who led that gallant host displayed the skill of 
veterans, and the names of Scott, Jessup, Leavenworth, McNeil, and 
Hinman, were given to their country to adorn the proudest page of its 
history. Five-and-thirty minutes decided the contest, and the retiring 
foe was pursued and driven to his fortress. None who saw will forget 
the terrific beauty of this scene ; the noble appearance of the troops — 
the dreadful precision of every movement — the awful fury of the battle 
— its fatal severity — its brief continuance — its triumphant close. 

As the victors returned from the pursuit of the retiring enemy, a scene 
of intense interest was presented. They traversed the field which a few 
minutes before had sparkled with the proud equipage of war. There 
had been gallant men, and gay uniforms, and waving banners ; and there 
had been drums and trumpets, and the wild notes of the bugle, stirring 
the soul to action. There had been nodding plumes, and beating hearts^ 
and eyes that gleamed with ambition. 

There too had been tempestuous chiefs, emulous of fame, dashing 
their fiery steeds along the hostile ranks ; and there had been all the 
spirit-stirring sighs and sounds that fill the eye and the ear and the 
heart of the young warrior, giving more than the poet's fire to the 
entranced imagination. What a change had a few brief minutes pro- 
duced ! Now the field was strewed with ghastly and disfigured forms, 
•with the wounded, with the mutilated and the dying. The ear was filled 
with strange and melancholy and terrific sounds ; the shouts of victory 
had given place to groans of anguish, the complaints of the vanquished, 
the prayers or the imprecations of the dying. Here was one who called 
upon Heaven to protect his children, another raved of a bereaved wife, 
a third tenderly aspired a beloved name, consecrated only by that tie — ■ 
while others deprecated their own suffering or pleaded piteously for the 



PASSAGES IN THE HISTORY OF SARAH CURRAI7. 2S1 

pardon of their sins. Here were tliose who prayed ardently for death, 
and some who implored a few minutes more of life. Complaints of 
bodily pain, and confession of unrepented crimes, burst forth from the 
souls of many in heart-rending accents ; while some, as they gazed upon 
the fast-flowing crimson torrent, wasted the brief remains of breath in 
moralizing upon the shortness of life, and man's careless prodigality of 
existence. 

Many gallant spirits there were on that ensanguined plain who pray- 
ed silently ; and some who dared not praj^, and yet scorned to murmur. 
Their compressed lips bespoke their firmness ; their eyes wandered wist- 
fully over the bright scene that was fading before them, and they grasp- 
ed fervently the hands of those who bade them farewell. 



SOME PASSAGES IN THE HISTORY OF SARAH CURRAN. 

Sarah Curran has already been the theme of story and of song : 
and as long as the Broken Heart, by Washington Irving, be read, and 
the exquisite melody of '' She is far from the Land," by our national 
poet, Moore, shall preserve its popularity — so long must the real history 
of the inspirer of these pathetic records continue to interest the sympa- 
thies of the gentle and the good. When first I saw her, she was in her 
twelfth year, and was even at that age remarkable for a pensive charac- 
ter of countenance which she never afterwards lost. A favourite sister 
(to the best of my recollection, a twin) died when she was eight years 
old, and was buried under a large tree in the lawn of the Priory, (BIr. 
Gurran's seat, near Dublin,) directly opposite to the window of the 
nursery. This tree had been a chosen haunt of the affectionate pair- 
under its shade they had often sat together — pulled the first primroses 
at its root — and watched, in its leaves, the earliest verdure of the spring. 
Many an hour, for many a year, did the affectionate survivor take her 
silent stand at the melancholy window, gazing on the well-known spot 
which constituted all her little world of joys and sorrows. To this cir- 
cumstance she attributed the tendency to melancholy which formed so 
marked a feature of her character through life. Fondly attached to 
both her parents, her grief may be imagined, when, at the period of her 
attaining her fourteenth year, Mr. Curran publicly endeavoured to obtain 
a divorce from his wife. As there existed no ground but his caprice of 
temper for this disgraceful proceeding, he, of course, failed in his 
attempt; and as the public were acquainted with his early history, 
and the sacrifices which had attended Mrs. Curran's acceptance of 
his hand, his conduct attracted no small share of popular odium. Mr. 
Curran's origin was humble, and even his splenclid talents might not 
have been found sufficient to have raised him to the position in society 
which he subsequently occupied, had it not been for his marriage with 
a lady of family and fortune. He began his career as private tutor in 
the family of Dr. Creagh, of Creagh Castle, in the county of Cork — a 

t2 



282 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

gentleman of large property, as well as an enlightened and eminent phy- 
sician. Miss Creagh, a young lady of considerable taste and acquire- 
ments, proved but too sensible of the genius and talents of this accom- 
plished inmate of her paternal dwelling, and a private marriage was the 
consequence. After a short time subsequent to its discovery had elapsed, 
Dr. Creagh consented to forgive his daughter, received her once more 
beneath his roof, and allowed her fortune to be expended on Mr. Curran's 
studies at the Temple. 

That he requited the affection of this amiable v^oman by attempting 
to repudiate her, will surprise no one in the least acquainted with the 
general details of his domestic conduct. The breaking up of his estab- 
lishment, the dispersion of his family, and his own loss of character, 
were the consequences of this unhappy step. His appeal to a court of 
justice was heard with impatience, and repelled with indignation. 

In this perplexing position, my young friend shone conspicuous, and 
was as much distinguished among the members of her own family as 
they were from the ordinary ranks of society. Her engaging manners 
and amiable qualities attracted the attention of many whose friendship 
never afterwards deserted her. Among these was the Rev. Thomas 
Crawford, of Lismore, one of the earliest of Mr. Curran's friends. To 
be unhappy was in itself a letter of introduction to which he was never 
inattentive. He was acquainted with every member of Mr. Curran's 
family, and the youth, the amiable disposition, and deep affliction with 
which his youngest and favourite daughter was overwhelmed by the 
separation of her parents, induced Mr. Crawford to offer her an asylum 
.in his house. If any thing could have caused her to forget her father, 
it would have been the part this worthy man so generously acted towards 
her. She was to him, indeed, as a daughter; he loved her, and valued 
her as such. Under his protecting care, she remained, until Mr. Curran 
recalled his banished children once more to their home, and formed a 
new establishment for their reception. But, alas ! my poor friend's life 
was but an April day ; or rather, it consisted of drops of joy, with 
draughts of ill between. The two or three years she spent under the 
paternal roof were the last she was permitted to number of enjoyment 
and happiness. 

During the long war in which England— often single-handed — strug- 
gled, with glory and success, for her own integrity and the liberty of 
Europe, her peaceful shores were repeatedly threatened with the in- 
vasion of a foreign foe. The rumours of such an event, becoming very 
prevalent about the year 1802, reached the ear of a young enthusiast, 
at that time an exile from his native country, in Switzerland. In that 
cradle of liberty, did Robert Emmett, as he said, endeavour to forget 
the miseries of his native country, and the dishonour with which his 
soul beheld her branded, and live the life of a freeman ! 

When Switzerland, after a vain resistance, was fettered by the shackles 
of Bonaparte, Ireland was immediately menaced with a G-allic descent : 
and Emmett, in an ill-fated hour, landed on her shores, as he affirmed, 
to avert the calamity of her becoming a French province. His plans, 
by the little that is known of them, appear to have been perplexed and 



PASSAGES IN THE HISTORY OF SARAH GURRAN. 283 

ineoherent in the estreme ; and had they been otherwise, the premature 
commencement of the insurrection would have rendered them abortive. 
After a slight disturbance of only a few hours' duration, on the night 
of July 23, 1803, in which Lord Kilwarden and some other loyalists 
were unfortunately assassinated, peace and good order were again re- 
stored. A few of the ringleaders were punished ; and among the 
number, this unhappy worshipper of Utopian freedom became a sacrifice 
to his romantic dreams of liberty and patriotism. Previously to this 
eventful period of his life, Mr. Gurran's eldest son, Richard, had been 
intimate with Robert Emmett, at Trinity College ; and their youthful 
friendship, on his return to Ireland, was unfortunately renewed. He 
introduced his friend to his father and sisters, and Emmett became a 
constant visitor at the Priory. An attachment, as ardent as it was un- 
fortunate, was soon formed between him and Mr. Curran's youngest 
daughter. In the outpouring of his soul to this object of his idolatry, 
the enthusiast revealed all his plans and intentions respecting the medi- 
tated overthrow of the Irish government* happy would it have been 
for him, had he attended to the words of wisdom and of warning that 
fell from her gentle lips ; but, alas ! on this occasion they were of no 
avail. Dazzled with the splendour thrown by Roman story over deeds 
admired because they were successful, he persuaded himself that, as 
tyranny was weakness, those whom he considered the enslavers of his 
country could be easily subdued ; and he rushed with heedless impetu- 
osity into the struggle. 

Mr. Curran's politics had formerly been what are called liberal ; but, 
from the time that his party had succeeded to power, he attached him- 
self to the government, under which he enjoyed a post of honour and 
emolument. His surprise and indignation could hardly be wondered at, 
when it was announced to him that he was an object of suspicion to his 
former friends, and that he was supposed to be implicated in Emmett's 
designs. He repaired instantly to the Castle of Dublin, and insisted on 
remaining in custody there, until every person arrested for the plot 
should be examined. As his loyalty had always been so apparent, it 
was a severe trial to his feelings, both as a parent and a man of honour, 
to be asS^ired, beyond all doubt, that at least one of his family was iai- 
plieated ; that letters from his daughter had been found among Em- 
mett's papers, and that an order had been issued from the Lord Lieu- 
tenant to have his house and correspondence examined ! As Mr. Curran 
was conscious of his own innocence, he only felt as a father whose eyes 
were thus suddenly opened to domestic injury and affliction. Without 
taking time to inquire into the extent of his misfortune, he pronounced 
sentence of banishment for ever from the paternal roof on the innocent 
cause of his temporary vexation. Among Emmett's paj^ers were 
found various letters from Sarah Curran, all warning him against his 
fatal design, and pointing out to him its folly and impracticability. 
There was also one letter refusing the offer of his hand, and giving, as 
her reason, the impossibility of leaving a father she so fondly loved. 

For a short time after the explosion of the plot, Emmett was con- 
cealed in a safe retreat in Dublin — his passage secured on board an 



284 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

American vessel — and the last time I saw my friend happy, she believed 
liim to be far away on the billows, beyond the power of his enemies, and 
destined to reach in safety the more hospitable shores of America. That 
very, day he was arrested ! I shall not attempt to describe her feelings 
on receiving a letter from Emmett, informing her that, as she had re- 
fused to accompany him, he was determined to remain in Ireland and 
abide his fate. This, if possible, was another barb, added to the arrow 
that smote the hapless lovers ; nor could my poor friend ever forgive 
herself for being, as she thought, the certain though innocent cause of 
Emmett's unhappy end. Her arguments were not wholly disregarded 
by him, as, in one of his replies, he remarks: — "I am aware of the 
chasm that opens beneath my feet, but I keep my eyes fixed on the 
visions of glory which flit before them, and I am resolved to clear the 
gulf, desperate as may be the attiempt." 

The circumstances of Emmett's trial and condemnation are too well 
known to render it necessary for me to recapitulate them in this place. 
After the delivery of his animated and affecting defence. Lord Norbury 
pronounced sentence of death upon him, and the ill-fated man was exe- 
cuted the following day in Thomas street, near the place on which he had 
established the revolutionary depot of arms and ammunition. Before his 
death, (when removed to Newgate, after his trial,) he authorized a gentle- 
man to announce to government, as his own declaration, that he was the 
chief mover and instigator of the insurrection, and out of the sum of 
£2500, which he had received on the death of his father, he had ex- 
pended DO less than £1400 in the preparatory outlay. 

A loss of reason, of some months' continuance, spared my poor friend 
the misery of travelling, step by step, through the wilderness of wo 
which Emmett's trial and execution would have proved to her, and when 
she recovered her senses, her lover had been for some time numbered 
among the dead. As soon as her health permitted, she left the residence 
of her father, whose heart remained untouched by those misfortunes and 
suiferings which excited the pity and sympathy of every one besides. Mr. 
Curran refused to see his daughter after her recovery, and she was again 
thrown on the world, which, with more than poetic truth, had proved a 
hrohen reed, and pierced her to the heart. But Grod raised up friends to 
this stricken deer ; and, in a letter of hers now before me, written at the 
time, she says, speaking of that kind, amiable family, who received 
her when deserted by her father, — " I find a pleasure in reflecting, that 
my father introduced me to the dear Penroses, as if it were to atone for 
his continued severity towards me.'' I received several letters from her 
during her residence at Woodhill, near Cork, the seat of Mr. Cowper 
Penrose, of whose tenderness and afi"ection, as well as the kindness of 
the whole family, she makes constant mention. While under the pro- 
tection of this gentleman's roof, she again became the object of an ardent 
and disinterested attachment. Among the many who met and admired 
her, was Colonel Sturgeon,* a gentleman of peculiarly engaging manners 

■■■■ Colonel Henry Stargeon was the son of Lady Anne AVentworth, and grandson, by 
hifi maternal descent, of the celebrated Marquis of Rockingham. 



PASSAGES IN THE HISTORY OF SARAH CURRAN. 285 

and deportment, and who, with the gay, good-humour of the military 
profession, possessed discernment and sensibility enough to appreciate 
and esteem merits such as hers, and, had not her heart been seared by 
early grief and disappointment, one who could not have failed to have 
experienced a most flattering reception. When he first made his propo- 
sals, Miss Curran did every thing in her power to induce him to desist 
from a pursuit, which she assured him could only terminate in disap- 
pointment. She confided to him every particular of her sad, eventful life — 
her love, and her devotedness to Emmett — and the utter impossibility of 
her ever being able to return any other affection, however it might deserve 
the best efforts of her heart; while, at the same time, she was not insen- 
sible to Colonel Sturgeon's merits — well calculated, under other circum- 
stances, to make the impression he desired. 

The constancy and tenderness of her attachment to Emmett seemed 
to have rendered her more interesting to Colonel Sturgeon, and as he 
continued a welcome guest at Mr. Penrose's, an intimacy still subsisted 
between them. She hoped that his passion had settled into the more 
placid sentiment of friendship, when a sudden call of military duty in a 
distant land pi'oved to her how fallacious had been her hopes. The 
peaceful but deceitful calm of her expectations was suddenly interrupted 
by Colonel Sturgeon's arrival, in haste, at Woodhill, and an announce- 
ment, that in four days he must leave Cork for Loudon, and thence for 
immediate foreign service. He again renewed his suit with all the energy 
of despair. He had a friend in every member of the Penrose family, 
all of whom were anxious that the union of two persons so calculated to 
make each other happy should not be deferred. They united their en- 
treaties to Miss Curran to give a favourable answer, and in three days she 
became the wife of a gallant soldier, than whom no second suitor could 
better deserve her hand. 

After yielding thus, as it were, a surprised consent, her heart failed 
her, and the morning of her wedding-day she implored her kind friends 
to allow her to proceed no farther. They remonstrated with her, and 
told her she would be trifling with the feelings of one of the most amia- 
ble of men, should she manifest such a disposition. She was married at 
Glanmire church, near Woodhill, and was, in truth, a mourning bride. 
One of our female friends who accompanied her in the coach to Glan- 
mire, told me, that she knew not who shed most tears on the road. After 
a year's residence in England, Colonel Sturgeon was ordered to Sicily, 
where my poor friend endeiavoured to make him happy and herself cheer- 
ful. Some, perhaps, who have casually met her, both before and after 
marriage, have not considered her so remarkable a person as she really 
wasj forgetful that the refinement of true genius is opposed to all intel- 
lectual ostentation; that talents, in one so afflicted as she had been, must 
often be veiled by the darkness of cherished sorrow; and that genuine 
sensibility flourishes not on the rugged highway of common life, but 
delights to expand its blossom in the shelter and secrecy of fostering 
kindness. 

A sudden descent of the French on the Sicilian shores, in the year 
1808, obliged the English to leave that country in haste. After a stormy 



286 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

and dangerous passage of several weeks, esposed to all the inconve- 
niences of a crowded transport, Colonel and Mrs. Sturgeon arrived at 
Portsmouth. A short time before they landed, Mrs. Sturgeon had given 
birth to a delicate and drooping boy, whose death, soon after, at Ilythe, 
in the county of Kent, seems to have put a finishing stroke to her own 
sufferings. 

The last request Mrs. Sturgeon made of her father was, that she 
might be buried under her favourite tree at the Priory. She was spared the 
cruelty of a refusal, and was buried at the little village of Newmarket, 
in the county of Cork, where her father was born. Colonel Sturgeon 
did not very long survive her — he was killed in Portugal during the 
Peninsular war. — Blackioood's Magazine. 



"THE FASHION OF THIS WORLD PASSETH AWAY." 

EXTRACT FEOM PIERPONT. 

While you are contempla.ting these melancholy changes, and the 
chill of disappointment is going through your heart, the feeling comes 
upon you, in all its bitterness, that the mournful ravages which time 
has wrought upon the scenes and the objects of your attachment, will 
not and cannot be repaired by time, in any of his future rounds. Re- 
turning years can furnish you with no proper objects for the fresh and 
glowing affections of youth ; and even if those objects could be fur- 
nished, it is too late now to feel for them the correspondent aifection. 
The song of your mountain stream can never more soothe your ear. 
The grove that you loved shall invite you to meditation and to worship 
no more. Another may, indeed, spring up in its place, but you shall 
not live to see it. It may shade your grave, but your heart shall never 
feel its charm. Your affections are robbed of the treasures to which 
they clung so closely and so long, and that for ever. The earth, where 
it had appeared most lovely, is changed. The things that were nearest 
to your heart have changed with it. The fashion in which the world 
was arrayed when it took hold on you with the strongest attachment, 
has passed away ; its mysterious power to charm you has fled ; all its 
holiest enchantments are broken, and you see that nothing remains as 
it was, but the abiding outline of its surface, its valleys where the still 
waters find their way, and the stern visage of its everlasting hills. 

Nor does the fashion of the world pass away in regard to the ever- 
varying appearances of its exterior alone ; its vegetable productions flou- 
rish and fade with every year, or those that endure for ages beyond the 
utmost limit of animal life. It is, indeed, an eloquent commentary 
upon the apostle's remark, to see the oak, that shaded one generation 
of men after another, even before it attained its maturity, and in the 
fulness of its strength had stretched forth its giant arms over many 
succeeding generations, yield to decay at last, and fall of its own weight, 
after having gloried in its strength for centuries. It is an eloquent 
commentary to see the fashion of those things passing away in which 
the proudest efl"orts of human power have been displayed; to see the 



THE FASHION OF THIS WOELD. 287 

curious traveller inquirmg and searching upon the banks of the Euphrates 
for the site of ancient Babylon, or measuring the huge masses of rock 
that composed the temples of the sun at Palmyra, or digging in the 
valley of the Nile to bring to light the stupendous relics of ancient 
architecture, that have, for thousands of years, been buried in the sands 
of the desert. It is even an eloquent exposition of the apostle's remark 
to see the towers that were raised by the power of feudal princes, and 
the abbeys and cathedrals that were the scenes of monastic devotion, 
now that they are crumbling and falling away, their tottering walls cur- 
tained with ivy, and the bird of night the only tenant of those for- 
saken abodes of a stern despotism, and of a still more stern superstition. 

But not the products of the earth, nor yet the works of man, alone 
change and pass away. In many particulars the great mass of earth 
itself is liable to change, and has been moulded into different forms. 
Hills have been sunk beneath the depths of the sea, and the depths of 
the sea, in their turn, have been laid bare, or thrown up into stupendous 
mountains. 

We, who are the creatures of a day, talk of everlasting hills. But 
when we stand upon the very hills that we call so, or when we go down 
into their masses of rock, they tell us that they, too, have basked in 
the light but for a time ; that once the great waters rolled over them, 
and that they now hold the treasures of the deep locked up in their 
impenetrable caverns. 

If, then, the beauties of the year are so fading, and its bounties so 
soon perish ; if the loveliest scenes of nature lose their power to charm, 
and a few revolving years break the spell that binds us to those whom 
we love best ; if the very figure of the earth is changed by its own con- 
vulsions; if the forms of human governments and the monuments of 
human power and skill cannot endure; if even the religions that pre- 
dominate in one age are exploded in another ; if nothing on " the earth 
beneath or the waters under the earth" preserves its form unchanged, 
what is there that remains for ever the same ? What is there over 
which autumnal winds and wintry frosts have no power? What that 
does not pass away while we are contending with wayward fortune, or 
struggling with calamity ? What that is proof against the fluctuations 
of human opinion, and the might of ocean's waves, and the convulsions 
by which mountains are heaved up from the abyss, or thrown from their 
deep foundations ? 

It is the Grod by whom these mighty works are done, by whose hand 
this great globe was first moulded, and has ever since been fashioned 
according to his will. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that 
the Everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, 
fainteth not, neither is weary ? 

To him, then, we can go, and to him let us go, in a filial assurance 
that there is no variableness in him. Though the glories of the year 
fade, though our young afiections are blighted, and our expectations from 
this world are disappointed, we know that he has the power to make all 
these melancholy scenes of salutary influence, and conducive to " the 
soul's eternal health." Though the opinions of the world, and our own 



288 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

opinions in respect to him, may change, there is no change in the love 
with which he regards and for ever embraces us. God passeth not 
away, nor do his laws. Those laws require that we, and all that is 
around us, should change and pass away. Those laws govern us, and 
will do so for ever. They bind us to our highest good. Then let us 
yield them a prompt and perpetual obedience. 



ROUSSEAU'S OPINION OF THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR. 

This divine book, the only one which is indispensable to the Christian, 
needs only to be read with reflection to inspire love for its Author, and 
the most ardent desire to obey its precepts. Never did virtue speak so 
sweet a language ; never was the most profound wisdom expressed with 
so much energy and simplicity. No one can arise from its perusal 
without feeling himself better than he was before. 

The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with astonishment, and the 
sanctity of the gospel addresses itself to my heart. Look at the volumes 
of the philosophers, with all their pomp ; how contemptible do they 
appear in comparison to this ! Is it possible, that a book, at once so 
simple and sublime, can be the work of man ? Can he who is the sub- 
ject of its history be himself a mere man ? Was his the tone of an 
enthusiast, or of an ambitious sectary ? What sweetness ! What purity 
in his manners ! What an affecting gracefulness in his instructions ! 
IVhat sublimity in his maxims ! What profound wisdom in his dis- 
courses ! What presence of mind, what sagacity and propriety in his 
answers ! How great the command over his passions ! Where is the 
man, where the philosopher, who could so live, suffer, and die, without 
weakness, and without ostentation ! When Plato described his imaginary 
good man, covered with all the disgrace of crime, yet worthy of all the 
rewards of virtue, he described exactly the character of Jesus Christ. 
The resemblance was so striking, it could not be mistaken, and all the 
Fathers of the Church perceived it. What prepossession, what blind- 
ness must it be to compare the son of Sophronicus to the son of Mary ! 
What an immeasurable distance between them ! Socrates, dying with- 
out pain, and without ignominy, easily supported his character to the 
last ; and if his death, however easy, had not crowned his life, it might 
have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was any thing 
more than a mere sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of moral 
science. Others, however, had before him put it in practice; and he 
had nothing to do but to tell what they had done, and to reduce their 
examples to precept. Aristides had been just, before Socrates defined 
what justice was. Leonidas had died for his country, before Socrates 
made it a duty to love one's country. Sparta had been temperate be- 
fore Socrates eulogized sobriety ; and before he celebrated the praises of 
virtue, Grreece had abounded in virtuous men. But from whom of all 
his countrymen could Jesus have derived that sublime and pure morality, 
of which he only has given us both the precept and the example ? In 
the midst of the most licentious fanaticism, the voice of the sublimest 



REFLECTIONS ON DEATH. 289 

wisdom was heard ; and the simplicity of the most heroic virtue crowned 
one of the humblest of all the multitude. 

The death of Socrates, peaceably philosophizing with his friends, is 
the most pleasant that could be desired ! That of Jesus, expiring iu 
torments, outraged, reviled, and execrated by a whole nation, is the 
most horrible that could be feared. Socrates, in receiving the cup of 
poison, blessed the weeping executioner who presented it ; but Jesus, in 
the midst of excruciating torture, prayed for his merciless tormentors. 
Yes ! if the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and 
death of Jesus were those of a Grod. Shall we say that the evangelic 
history is a mere fiction ? — it does not bear the stamp of fiction, but the 
contrary. The history of Socrates, which nobody doubts, is not as 
well attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such an assertion, in fact, only 
shifts the difficulty, without removing it. It is more inconceivable that 
a number of persons should have agreed to fabricate this book, than that 
one only should have furnished the subject of it. 

The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to 
the morality contained in the gospel, the marks of whose truth are so 
striking, so perfectly inimitable, that the inventor would be a more 
astonishing man than the hero. 



REFLECTIONS ON DEATH. 

Heavens ! what a moment must be that, when the last flutter ex- 
pires on our lips ! What a change ! Tell me, ye who are .deepest read 
in nature and in God, to what new worlds are we borne ? What new 
being do we receive ? Whither has that spark, that unseen, that un- 
comprehended intelligence fled ? Look upon the cold, livid, ghastly 
corpse that lies before you ! That was but a shell, a gross and earthly 
covering, which held for a while the immortal essence that has now left 
it ; — left it, to range, perhaps, through illimitable space ; — to receive 
new capacities of delight ; new powers of perception ; new glories of 
beatitude ! Ten thousand fancies rush upon the mind as it contem- 
plates the awful moment between life and death ! It is a moment big 
with imagination's greatest hopes and fears ; it is the consummation 
that clears up all mystery — resolves all doubts — which removes contra- 
diction, and destroys error. Great God ! what a flood of rapture may 
at once burst upon the departed soul ! The unclouded brightness of 
the celestial regions — the pure existence of ethereal beings — the solemn 
secrets of nature may then be divulged ; the immediate unity of the 
past, the present, and the future ; strains of unimaginable harmony, 
forms of imperishable beauty may then suddenly disclose themselves, 
bursting upon the delighted senses, and bathing them in measureless 
bliss ! The mind is lost in this excess of wondrous light, and dares not 
turn from the heavenly vision to one so gloomy, so tremendous as the 
departure of the wicked ! Human fancy shrinks back appalled ; while 
hope and charity whisper to the bleeding heart that there, where all 
mercy is, there too will be forgiveness ! 
Z 19 



290 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



FAME. 



BT THE HILFOED BARD. 



High on the crimson car of fame 

I saw the victor ride. 
He came from far through flood and flame, 

In all the pomp of pride ; 
And loud the war-trump pierced the skies. 

All hail ! the conqueror comes ! 
From every hill let shouts arise. 

And sound, ye doubling drums. 

The crimson crown the conqueror wore 

Waved o'er the warrior's head; . 
But his right arm was red with gore 

A hundred hearts had shed : 
A hundred hills in echoes rang 

O'er ocean's sounding surge : 
A hundred harps awoke and sang 

Of Europe's dreadful scourge. 

They sang the fame of him whose scroll 

A tide of tears had wet ; 
They sang the fame of him whose soul 

Had oft in murder met. 



And oft had spread dark midnight o'er 

The weeping widow's mind, 
And wrote her grief with gushing gore. 

Dread vampire of mankind. 

Not so with him who wore the plume 

When fair Columbia bled ; 
The sun that set on Vernon's tomb 

Smiled on the mighty dead : 
The blood that dyed Columbia's land 

Was paid for liberty — 
The great, the good, and glorious band. 

The western world set free. 

The scroll of him who sleeps in earth, 

Gave liberty a name : 
And virtue's heroes then had birth. 

And virtuous valour fame. 
Gore gush'd through many a hundred veins 

On that immortal morn : 
Great God ! 'twas then were rent the chains 

Of millions yet unborn. 



SUNRISE OP THE SOUL. 



There is a land where strength decays, 
V\^here wisdom comes to naught ; 

Where vice claims virtue's honest praise- 
Where love with gold is bought. 

There is a land where genius dies. 
Where science meets its doom — 

Where all that's great, or good, or wise. 
Sinks in oblivion's gloom. 

There is a land whereon the brave 

Do perish in their fame — 
Sink silently within the grave, 

Eetaining but a name. 



There is a land where beauty fades 

Upon its icy breast; 
While penury the heart pervades. 

And pain's a constant guest. 

Ar)d there's a world where love and truth 

Perennial rise and bloom ; 
Where virtue, in imfading youth. 

Shall triumph o'er the tomb. 

How gladly would my tortured breast 

Reject earth's base control; 
And hail afar, in regions blest. 

The sunrise of the soul ! 



'TIS SWEET TO THINK. 



BY REV. J. BRETTEL. 



'TiS sweet to think.that when I die, 
There's one will hold my languid head. 

And let me on her bosom lie, 
Till every breath of life is fled. 

And when these beaming eyes shall close. 
And lose at last their fading ray. 

For ever fix'd in deep repose, 
She'll watch beside my lifeless clay. 



'Tis sweet to think that when I'm dead. 
Her eye will pour its softest tear. 

Her hand upon my green turf shed 
The sweetest flowerets of the year. 

'Tis sweet to think we both shall lie 
Ere long within one common tomb. 

Till, from death's bonds released, we fly 
To those best realms beyond its gloom. 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOUR OF DEATH. 291 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOUR OF. DEATH. 

The consolations of Christianity form one of its most delightful as 
well as salutary accompaniments. , Their value is not generally appre- 
ciated till heart and flesh begin to fail, and the world to pass away. 
Then, in the absence of health and strength, when all earthly sensations 
lose their charms, and the springs of nature cease to act with their 
wonted force, these friendly visitors from the cross encircle the dying 
saint, and throw over and around him the everlasting arms of divine 
mercy. How sad and lonely the couch where the emaciated, strength- 
less form is stretched unaccompanied by those dawnings of eternal day ! 
Over the poor, unhappy, wasted clay no starlight blightens, no cherub 
wings are hovering. In vain are arms of friendship extended, the bosom 
of love opened. The rays of hope may gleam a brief moment in the 
horizon of his mind, but they are cold and cheerless. No vivifying in- 
fluence passes over the feverish brain — no holy gust of ecstatic joy subli- 
mates the mind. Oh, it is hard dying when these comforts are wanting 
— when the past, the present, and the future bring in the dreadful 
sentence tliat all is lost — when no uplifted arm makes strong the soul, 
nor points with unerring ti'uth the bright way up to the mansions of 
felicity ! But oh, how soft the bed of death; what easy, pleasant dying, 
when the comfortable assurances of God's word are brought home to the 
heart of the stricken one in the language that cannot be misunderstood ! 
When the soul, feeling after the promises, finds itself suddenly clinging 
to the Rock of Ages, and, rising up in the strength of the Lord of hosts, 
grapples with the monster on ground consecrated by the Son of God, 
and prevails and triumphs ! It is then that he looks upon the fallen 
pillars in which he has only gloried, with a smile, and beholds 
unmoved the crumbling tabernacle, falling down in ruins, while, new- 
fledged, he breaks his bonds, and towers away to dip his pinions in the 
fount of light. 

Sure the last end 
Of the good man is peace ! How calm his exit! 
Night dews fall not more gently to the ground, 
Nor weary, worn-out winds, expire so soft. 



MY MOTHER. 



Where dwells the being in whose bosom affection's tender call meets 
with a responsive throb of feeling, that does not cherish with pleasure the 
remembrance of a mother's love, and the assiduous attention of a mother's 
devotedness ? When the first half-meant glistening of the infant eye 
bespoke " the first dawn of reason ;" when the puny arms first clasped 
the maternal neck, and the sweet babe seemed " a pearl of price" on the 
bosom ; who, with soul-exhausting fervour, pressed the dear treasure to 



292 FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 

its faithful home ? And when the chuckling laugh, and the little, rest- 
less, elastic limbs of her dearest, in its playful humour, won her smile,^ 
who caressed the sportive child, and gave back kiss for kiss ? It was 
the MOTHER. If some gloomy foreboding, some cloud of care, came over 
the sunlight of her hope, telling her that the bright being next her heart 
would smile no more — the tears that bathed the polished brow beneath 
her look of love were a baptism that would gain it a heaven. 

When the tottering limbs essayed to move in the harmony of nature, 
the goal of the infant trial was the parent knee, the reward the parent 
embrace. The first faint lisp of language, that seems to be taught by 
an angel, comes on the mother's ear like undefined music; and the first 
trial is to sound a mother's name. Oh ! thought-enkindling word I con- 
nected with every remembered pang of sorrow, and every association of 
former happiness. 

The maternal knees are the first altar of devotion; and the clustering 
head of childhood, bowed in its mother's lap, pours out the sweet and 
acceptable prayer of innocence. The kind hand that falls with blessings 
on the youthful brow smooths the couch of sleep; while the eternal 
principle of a mother's love, like a guardian spirit, ever watches over its 
repose. 

The heyday of youth has passed ; and with it have been separated 
the closer ties that bound me to my mother. Yet the chain of affection 
has been but loosened — not a link of it has been broken. When the 
wild war of passion rages, the memory of her love comes like magic over 
my soul, and, like " oil on the troubled waters," calms it to rest. 

Oh, my mother ! may he who has felt love like thine, never know 
love from any, if he once forgets thee. And may the rich blessings of 
Heaven descend on thee, as thou hast often prayed for them to come upon 
thy child ! 



ETERNAL HOPE. 

If we contemplate the ravages of time but for a single year, and re- 
flect upon the changes and events that have taken place even in our own 
limited sphere, we must be sensible of the insecurity of all things earth- 
ly, and feel that this world is not our home, and cannot long be our 
abiding place. By casting our eye back to the years when our feeble 
existence commenced, we learn, that when a few more friends have left, 
and a few more changes mocked us, our voices too must be hushed, our 
hearts must cease to beat, and our heads must be placed on that pillow 
from whence they will be raised only when " time shall be no longer." 

In this situation then, and with this belief, we are doubtless ready to 
cry out. Is there no substance among all these shadows ? If the pleasures 
of life are vanishing away — if the works of nature are changing, and the 
monuments of art crumbling to the dust — if, while looking upon our 
friends, they are fled from our anxious gaze, and we have felt that we are 



MEMORY. 293 

as transient as they — if we have looked in vain for durability on every 
object to which we can turn our eyes, on what shall we rest ; on what 
can we place our trust ! Can there be no support ? Can nothing be 
named to sustain our sinking hearts ? Thanks to the Author of all 
good, we are not left without a guide. There is a point to which we 
may direct our eyes. Though all created substances perish, " hope is 
eternal.'" The hope of future happiness is a never-failing source of con- 
solation to the Christian. Under any troubles, however grievous, it 
soothes his mind. When memory brings to view joys that are past and 
gone, departed friends that were near and dear, every spring of painful 
sensibility is touched ; yet in these moments, how relieving is the hope 
that the separation is not eternal — that the time will come when those 
former connections with his virtuous friends will be renewed — when 
those whose piety and virtue once cheered him, shall be united to him, 
and they shall dwell together on that peaceful shore where the revolu- 
tions of nature can never come. 

Who of us are to leave this world before the close of another year, is 
known only in the counsels of eternity. Doubtless there are many, who, 
looking forward to the opening year, are ready to promise themselves 
much, from the friendships and connections they have secured, and from 
the plans of prosperity which they have formed. But while they are 
doating upon these dreams of happiness, and saying in secret to their 
hearts, '' To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant,'^ we 
feel constrained to say to them, " Eoast not yourselves of to-morrow, for 
you know not what a day may bring forth. ^' But the sincere Christian, 
the man who places his hope on the Rock of Ages, will not be anxious 
to build his treasures where moth and rust do corrupt, or eager to scan 
the mysteries of futurity. It is enough for him to know that God 
reigneth, and that he can with truth exclaim — " Eternal hope 1" 

When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow, 
And heaven's last thunder shakes the world below ; 
Thou undismay'd shalt o'er the ruins smile, 
And light thy torch at nature's funeral pile. 



MEMORY. 

Memory, that mirror, which affection dashes to the earth, and, looking down upon the 
fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied. 

I SEATED myself on the old trunk on which I had so often rested — I 
cast my eyes over the surrounding landscape — the sun was sinking, and 
the water seemed blazing with its refulgence ; the mild, the balmy breath 
of evening swept across my face — the distant call of the boatmen fell 
upon mine ear. Such a breeze had I felt — such sounds had I beard, 
often — often in purer, happier hours ! All seemed the same as when I 
last was there — the very shadow of the elms — the solitary bird that 



294 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

swept its lonely way through the sky — the form of the clouds that hung 
golden-fringed around the setting orb ; they were there — unchanged 
even in the minutest circumstance. I looked towards the banks of the 
stream ; there, and on such an eve, had I wandered with Mary ; there 
had I felt her leaning on my arm in all the confiding gentleness of 
affection; there had my heart throbbed wildly with delight, as I gazed 
upon her ; and there, alas ! — and even in that blissful moment did the 
conviction that it was the happiest hour of my existence cast its mist 
over my enjoyment. Every word she uttered rushed upon my memory ; 
even the very thoughts of the moment came fresh -and glowing before 
me. I could almost fancy I again heard her voice, and, as it were, 
instinctively turned to meet her look. The illusion vanished — the fairy 
web of fancy was broken, and I awoke to consciousness, and an aching 
■ — a despairing heart. 

The avenue of elms, through whose thick foliage, enwreathed with 
woodbine, the sun's rays now shot, next caught my attention. On the 
same spot from which I now took my sad glance in the perspective of 
memory, often had I sat, anxiously expecting to see the form of her, my 
heart's loved one, hastening along that path. How often, on beholding 
her, had I started from my seat, to greet her with the kiss of affection ! 
Not a charm of nature had faded — the rude hand of time seemed to have 
spared even the simple hedge flower — but where was she who first ren- 
dered that scene dear to me ? I cast a wild look around me — in vain ! 
— and I felt the chill of loneliness rush deathlike over my heart ! 

Reflection — the gift that constitutes man's fatal superiority over the 
rest of the creation, by teaching him to sum up the extent of his 
wretchedness — so absorbed my senses, that for some time I perceived 
not the change that had taken place in the heavens. Clouds, black and 
heavy, were gathering thickly together; the last rays of the sun shot 
blood-red between them; the rain began to fall in large and rapidly 
increasing drops ; and all told the approach of a terrific conflict of the 
elements. I arose and turned to seek some shelter ; the loud thunder 
burst in awful peals above my head, and the lightning shot its vivid rays 
around my path — emblem, too faithful emblem, of my present lot ! A 
few hours, and ^our powers will be spent, and serenity again preside ; 
but when shall the storm cease that rages in the brain ? When shall 
serenity return to the withered, the broken heart ? 



Religion. — Man, in whatever state he may be considered, as well 
as in every period and vicissitude of life, experiences in religion an effica- 
cious antidote against the ills which oppress him, a shield that blunts 
the darts of his enemies, and an asylum into which they can never enter. 
In every event of fortune it excites in his soul a sublimity of ideas, by 
pointing out to him the just Judge, who, as an attentive spectator of hia 
conflicts, is about to reward him with his inestimable apjarobation. 
Religion also, in the darkest tempest, appears to man as the iris of 
peace, and, dissipating the dark and angry storm, restores the wished-fbr 
calm, and brings him to the port of safety. 



WAR. 



WAR. 



The following beautiful extract is from the pen of Dr. Chalmers, who 
has written with such force and energy in defence of the Christian 
religion. It presents in so strong a light the ferocious aspect of war, 
when undisguised by the false splendours which surround it, that nothing 
ought to be read with greater delight, by a people whose duty, interest, 
and desire it is to encourage and adopt a pacific policy towards other 
nations : — 

One great obstacle to the extinction of war is the way in which the 
heart of man is carried off from its barbarities and its horrors by the 
splendour of its deceitful accomplishments. There is a feeling of the 
sublime in contemplating the shock of armies, just as there is in con- 
templating the devouring energy of a tempest ; and this so elevates and 
engrosses the whole man, that his eye is blind to the tears of bereaved 
parents, and his ear is deaf to the piteous moan of the dying, and the 
shriek of their desolated families. There is a gracefulness in the picture 
cf a youthful warrior, burning for distinction in the field, and lured by 
this generous aspiration to the deepest animated throng, where, in the 
fell work of death, the opposing sons of valour struggle for remembrance 
or a home; and this side of the picture is so much the exclusive object 
of our regard as to disguise from our view the mangled carcasses of the 
fallen, and the writhing agonies of the hundreds, and the hundreds more, 
who have been laid on the cold ground, where they are left to languish 
and to die. There is no eye to pity them ! no sister to weep over them ! 
There no gentle hand is present to ease the dying posture or bind up 
the wounds, which, in the maddening fury of the combat, have been 
given and received by the children of one common Father ! There 
death spreads his pale ensigns over every countenance ; and when night 
comes on, and darkness is around them, how many a despairing wretch 
must take up with the bloody field as the untented bed of his last suf- 
ferings, without one friend to bear the message of tenderness to his 
distant home — without one companion to close his eyes 1 

I avow it — on every side of me I see causes at work which go to 
spread a most delusive colouring over war, and to remove its shocking 
barbarities to the background of our contemplations' altogether. I see 
it in the history which tells me of the superb appearance of the troops 
and the brilliancy of their successive charges ; I see it in the poetry 
which lends the magic of its numbers to the narrative of blood, and 
transporting its many admirers, as by its images, and its figures, and its 
nodding plumes of chivalry, it throws its treacherous embellishments 
over a scene of legalized slaughter. I see it in the music which repre- 
sents the progress of the battle, and where, after being inspired by the 
trumpet-notes of preparation, the whole beauty and tenderness of a 
drawing-room are seen to bend over the sentimental entertainment; nor 
do I hear the utterance of a single sigh to interrupt the death-tones of 
the sickening contest, and the moans of the wounded men, as they fade 
away upon the ear and sink into lifeless silence ! AH, all goes to prove 



296 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

wtat strange and half-sighted creatures we are. Were it not so, war 
would never have been seen in any other aspect than that of unmingled 
hatefulness ; and I can look to nothing but the progress of Christian 
sentiment upon earth to arrest the strong current of its popular and pre- 
vailing partiality for war. Then only will an imperious sense of duty 
lay the check of severe principle on all the subordinate tastes and 
faculties of our nature. Then will glory be reduced to its right esti- 
mate; and the wakeful benevolence of the gospel, chasing away every 
spell, will be turned by the treachery of no delusion whatever from its 
simple but sublime enterprises, for the good of the species. Then the 
reign of truth and quietness will be ushered into the world ; and war, 
cruel, atrocious, unrelenting war, will be stript of its many and its 
bewilderino- fascinations. 



TWILIGHT. 



Of all the myriad sources of enjoyment which nature unfolds to man, 
I know few equal to those elicited by a balmy summer sunset. The 
idea is old, but the reflections it excites are perpetually varying. 
There is something in this hour so tender, so holy, so fraught with sim- 
ple, yet sublime associations, that it belongs rather to heaven than to 
earth. The curtain that drops down on the physical, also descends on 
the moral world. The day, with its selfish interests, its common-place 
distractions, has gone by, and the season of intelligence, of imagination, 
of spirituality, is dawning. Yes, twilight unlocks the Blandusian foun- 
tain of fancy ; there, as in a mirror, reflecting all things in added love- 
liness, the heart surveys the past, the dead, the absent ; the estranged 
come thronging back on memory; the paradise of inexperience, from 
which the flaming sword of Truth has long since exiled us, rises again 
in all the pristine beauty of its flowers and verdure ; the very spot where 
we breathed our first vows of love ; the slender, girlish figure, that, 
gliding like a sylph beside us, listened entranced to that avowal, made 
in the face of heaven, beneath the listening evening-star ; the home that 
witnessed her decline ; the churchyard that received her ashes j the 
grave wherein she now sleeps, dreamless and happy, deaf alike to the 
siren voice of praise and the withering sneers of envy — such sweet but 
.solemn recollections sweep, in shadowy pomp, across the mind, conjured 
up by the spells of twilight, as he waves his enchanted wand over the 
earth. 



GrOOD-NATURE. — Grood-nature Is the best feature in the finest face. 
Wit may raise admiration, judgment may command respect, and know- 
ledge attention ; beauty may inflame the heart with love : but good- 
nature has a more powerful effect — it adds a thousand attractions to the 
charms of beauty, and gives an air of beneficence to the most homely face. 



WASHINGTON AND ADAMS. 29'i 



WASHINGTON AND ADAMS. 

Anecdotes connected loitJi the appointment of General Washington to the 
command of the Army, June IQth, 1775. 

In a manuscript journal, under date of November 4, 1825, I find a 
record of a conversation had with the venerable John Adams, at that 
time, relative to the appointment of General Washington. It was in 
substance as follows : — 

The army was assembled at Cambridge, Massachusetts, under General 
Ward, and Congress was sitting at Philadelphia. Every day arrived 
new applications in behalf of the array. The country was urgent that 
Congress should adopt the army, for until they had, it must be consi- 
dered, and was in law considered, only as a mob, a band of armed rebels. 
The country was placed in circumstances of peculiar delicacy and danger. 
The struggle had begun, and yet every thing was at loose ends. The 
great trial now seemed to be in this question — icho should he commander- 
in-cMef? It was exceedingly important, and was felt to be the hinge 
on which the whole might turn for or against us. The Southern and 
Middle States, warm and rapid in their zeal, for the most part were jea- 
lous of New England, because they felt that the real physical force was 
here. What, then, was to be done ? All New England adored General 
Ward ) he had been in the French war, and came out laden with laurels. 
He was a scholar and a gentleman. All the qualifications seemed to 
cluster in him, and it was confidently believed that the army could not 
receive any commander over him. What, then, was to be done? Diffi- 
culties thickened at every step. The struggle was to be long and bloody. 
Without union all was lost. Union was strength. The country, and 
the whole country, must come in. One pulsation must beat through all 
hearts. The cause was one, and the arm must be one. The members 
had talked, debated, considered, and guessed, and yet the decisive step 
had not been taken. At length, Mr. Adams came to his conclusion, and 
the manner of developing it was nearly as follows : — He was walking- 
one morning before Congress Hall, apparently in deep thought, when his 
cousin, Samuel Adams, came up to him, and said, " What is the topic 
with you this morning, cousin ?" '■'■ Oh, the army, the army," he replied. 
" I am determined what to do about the army at Cambridge," he con- 
tinued — '' I am determined to go into the hall this morning, and enter 
on a full detail of the state of the colonies, in order to show the abso- 
lute need of taking some decisive steps. My whole aim will be to induce 
Congress to appoint a day for adopting the army as the legal array of 
these United Colonies of North America, and then to hint at an election 
of a commander-in-chief." 

"Well," said Samuel Adams, "I like that, cousin John ; but on whom 
have you fixed as this commander ?" "I'll tell you — George Washington, 
of Virginia, a member of this house." " Oh," replied Samuel Adams, 
quickly, " that will never do, never, never." " It must do, it shall do/' 



298 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

said John, "and for these reasons : the Southern and Middle States are 
loath to enter heartily into the cause, and their arguments are potent; 
they see that New England holds the physical power in her hands, and 
they fear the result. A New England army, a New England commander, 
with New England perseverance, all united, appal them. For this cause 
they hang back. Now the only way is, to allay their fears, and give 
them nothing to complain of; and this can be done in no other way but 
by appointing a Southern chief over this force. Then all will feel secure; 
then all will rush to the standard. This policy will blend us in one 
mass, and that mass will be resistless." At this Samuel Adams seemed 
greatly moved. They talked over the preliminary circumstances, and 
John asked his cousin to second his motion. Mr. Adams went in, took 
the floor, and put forth all his strength in the delineations he had pre- 
pared, all aiming at the adoption of the army ! He was ready to own 
the army, appoint a commander, vote supplies, and proceed to business. 
After his speech, some doubted, some objected, and some feared. His 
warmth mounted with the occasion, and to all these doubts and hesita- 
tions he replied, ''Gentlemen, if this Congress will not adopt this army, 
before ten moons have set. New England will have a Congress of her 
own which idUI adopt it, and she, she will undertake the struggle alone ; 
yes, with a strong arm, and a clear conscience, will front the foe alone." 
This had the desired effect. They saw New England was not playing, 
and was not to be played with ; they agreed to appoint a day. The day 
was fised. It came. Mr. Adams went in, took the floor, urged the 
measure, and, after debate, it passed. 

The next thing was to get a lawful commander for this lawful army, 
with supplies, &c. All looked to Mr. Adams, on this occasion, and he 
was ready. He took the floor, and went into a minute delineation of 
the character of G-eneral Ward, bestowing on him the epithets which 
then belonged to no one else. At the end of this eulogy he said, " But 
this is not the man I have chosen." He then went into a delineation 
of the character of a commander-in-chief, such as was required by the 
peculiar situation of the colonies at that juncture : and, after he had 
presented the qualifications in his strongest language, and given the 
reasons for the nomination he was about to make, he said — " G-entlemen, 
I know these qualifications are high, but we all know they are needful 
at this crisis in this chief. Does any one say they are not to be obtained 
in the country ? I reply, they are; they reside in one of our own body, 
and he is the person whom I now nominate — GtEORGE Washington, of 
Virginia." 

Washington, who sat on Mr. Adams's right hand,' was looking him 
intently in the face to watch the name he was about to announce ; and 
not expecting it would be his own, he sprang from his seat the moment 
he heard it, and rushed into an adjoining room as quickly as though 
moved by a shock of electricity. 

Mr. Adams had asked his cousin Sam to move for an adjournment as 
soon as the nomination was made, in order to give the members time to 
deliberate in private. They did deliberate, and the result is before the 
world. 



DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. 299 

I asked Mr. Adams, among other questions, the following : — '^ Did 
you never doubt of the success of the conflict 1" " No, no," said he, 
"not for a moment. I expected to be hung and quartered, if I was 
caught; but no matter for that, my country would be free; I knew 
G-eorge III. could not forge chains long enough and strong enough to 
reach round these States." 



DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON. 

On Friday, the 1.3th of December, 1799, while attending to some 
improvements upon his estate, he was exposed to a slight rain, by which 
his neck and hair became wet. Unapprehensive of danger from this 
circumstance, he passed the afternoon in his usual manner, but, in the, 
night, he was seized with an inflammatory aff"ection of the windpipe. The 
disease commenced with a violent ague, accompanied with some pain in 
the upper and fore part of the throat, a sense of stricture in the same 
part, a cough, a,nd a difficult, rather than a painful, deglutition, which 
were soon succeeded by a fever, and a quick and laborious respiration. 

Believing bloodletting to be necessary, he procured a bleeder, who 
took from his arm twelve or fourteen ounces of blood, but he would not 
permit a messenger to be despatched for his family physician until the 
appearance of day. About eleven in the morning, Dr. Craik arrived, 
and, perceiving the extreme danger of the case, requested that two con- 
sulting physicians should be immediately sent for. The utmost exer- 
tions of medical skill were applied in vain. The powers of life were 
manifestly yielding to the force of the disorder ; speaking, which was 
painful from the beginning, became almost impracticable ; respiration 
became more and more contracted and imperfect, until half-past eleven 
on Saturday night, when, retaining the full possession of his intellect, 
he expired without a struggle. 

Believing, at the commencement of his complaint, as well as through 
every succeeding stage of it, that its conclusion would be mortal, he 
submitted to the exertions made for his recovery rather as a duty than 
from any expectation of their efficacy. Some hours before his death, 
after repeated eff"orts to be understood, he succeeded in expressing a 
desire that he might be permitted to die without interruption. After 
it became impossible to get any thing down his throat, he undressed 
himself, and went to bed, there to die. To his friend and physician. 
Dr. Craik, who sat on his bed, and took his head in his lap, he said 
with difficulty, " Doctor, I am dying, and have been dying for a long 
time, but I am not afraid to die." 

During the short period of his illness, he economized his time in ar- 
ranging, with the utmost serenity, those few concerns which required 
his attention, and anticipated his approaching dissolution with every 
demonstration of that equanimity for which his life was so uniformly 
and singularly conspicuous. 

The deep and wide-spreading grief, occasioned by this melancholy 



300 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

event, assembled a great concourse of people, for the purpose of paying 
the last tribute of respect to the first of Americans. On Wednesday, 
the 18th of December, attended by military honours and the ceremo- 
nies of religion, his body was deposited in the family vault at Mount 
Vernon. 

So short was his illness, that, at the seat of government, the intelli- 
o-ence of his death preceded that of his indisposition. It was first com- 
municated by a passenger in the stage to an acquaintance whom he met 
in the street, and the report quickly reached the House of Representatives, 
which was then in session. The utmost dismay and afilietion were dis- 
played for a few minutes, after which a member stated in his place the 
melancholy information which had been received. This information, he 
said, was not certain, but there was too much reason to believe it true. 

"After receiving intelligence," he added, "of a national calamity so 
heavy and afflicting, the House of Representatives can be but ill-fitted 
for public business." He therefore moved an adjournment. Both 
houses adjourned until the nest day. 

On the succeeding day, as soon as the orders were read, the same 
member addressed the chair, and afterwards offered the following reso- 
lutions : 

" Resolved, That this house will wait upon the President, in condolence 
of this mournful event. 

^^ Resolved, That the speaker's chair be shrouded with black, and that 
the members and officers of the house wear black during the session. 

^^ Resolved, That a committee, in conjunction with one from the Senate, 
be appointed to consider on the most suitable manner of paying honour 
to the memory of the man first in war, first in peace, and first in the 
hearts of his fellow-citizens." 



WASHINOTON AND ADMIRAL VERNON. 

When the admiral was attacking Porto Bello, with his six ships only, 
as is described on the medal struck on the occasion, he observed a fine 
young man in appearance, who, with the most intrepid courage, attended 
with most perfect calmness, was always in that part of the ship which 
was most engaged. After the firing had ceased he sent his captain to 
request he would attend him ; which he immediately obeyed : and the 
admiral, entering into conversation, discovered by his answers and ob- 
servations, that he possessed moi-e abilities than usually fall to the lot 
of mankind in general. Upon his asking his name, the young man 
told him it was George Washington ; and the admiral, on his way home, 
strongly recommended him to the attention of the admiralty. This 
great man when he built his house in America, out of gratitude to his 
first benefactor, named it Mount Vernon, and at this moment it is so 
called. 



WASHINGTON. 301 



WASHINGTON. 



The following eloquent and beautiful address was delivered by Mr. 
Webster at the celebration, in Washington City, of the centennial birth- 
day of George Washington : — 

I rise, gentlemen, to propose to you the name of that great man, iu 
commemoration of whose birth, and in honour of whose character and 
services, we have here assembled. 

I am sure that I express a sentiment common to every one present 
when I say, that there is something more than ordinarily solemn and 
affecting in this occasion. 

We are met to testify our regard for him, whose name is intimately 
blended with whatever belongs most essentially to the prosperity, the 
liberty, the free institutions, and the renown of our country. That 
name was of power to rally a nation, in the hour of thick-thronging 
public disasters and calamities ; that name shone, amid the storm of 
war, a beacon light, to cheer and guide the country's friends ; its flame, 
too, like a meteor, to repel her foes. That name, in the days of peace, 
was a loadstone, attracting to itself a whole people's confidence, a whole 
people's love, and the whole world's respect; that name, descending 
with all time, spread over the whole earth, and uttered in all the lan- 
guages belonging to the tribes and races of men, will for ever be pro- 
nounced with affectionate gratitude by every one in whose breast there 
shall arise an aspiration for human rights and human liberty. 

We perform this grateful duty, gentlemen, at the expiration of a 
hundred years from his birth, near the place so cherished and beloved 
by him, where his dust now reposes, and in the capital which bears his 
own immortal name. 

All experience evinces, that human sentiments are strongly affected 
by associations. The recurrence of anniversaries, or of longer periods 
of time, naturally freshens the recollection, and deepens the impres- 
sion of events with which they are historically connected. Renowned 
places, also, have a power to awaken feeling, which all acknowledge. 
No American can pass by the fields of Bunker Hill, Monmouth, or 
Camden, as if they were ordinary spots on the earth's surface. Who- 
ever visits them, feels the sentiment of love of country kindling anew, 
as if the spirit that belonged to the transactions which have rendered 
these places distinguished, still hovered round, with power to move and 
excite ail who in future time may approach them. 

But neither of these sources of emotion equals the power with which 
great moral examples affect the mind. When sublime virtues cease to 
be abstractions; when they become embodied in human character, and 
exemplified in human conduct, we should be false to our own nature if 
we did not indulge in the spontaneous effusions of our gratitude and our 
admiration. A true lover of the virtue of patriotism delights to con- 
template its purest models ; and that love of country may be well sus- 
pected which affects to soar so high into the regions of sentiment as to 
2A 



802 PIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

be lost and absorbed in the abstract feeling ; and becomes too elevated, 
or too refined, to glow either with power in the commendation ot- the 
love of individual benefactors. All this is immaterial. It is as if one 
should be so enthusiastic a lover of poetry as to care nothing for Homer 
or Milton ; so passionately attached to eloquence as to be indifferent to 
Tully and Chatham ; or such a devotee to the arts, in such an ecstasy 
with the elements of beauty, proportion, and expression, as to regard the 
master-pieces of Raphael and Michael Angelo with coldness or contempt. 
We may be assured, gentlemen, that he who really loves the thing itself 
loves its finest exhibitions. A true friend of his country loves her 
friends and benefactors, and thinks it no degradation to commend and 
commemorate them. The voluntary outpouring of the public feeling, 
made to-day, from the North to the South, and from the East to the 
West, proves this sentiment to be both just and natural. In the cities 
and in the villages, in the public temples and in the family circles, 
among all ages and sexes, gladdened voices, to-day, bespeak grateful 
hearts, and a freshened recollection of the virtues of the Father of his 
country. And it will be so, in all time to come, so long as public virtue 
is itself an object of regard. The ingenuous youth of America will hold 
up to themselves the bright model of Washington's example, and study 
to be what they behold ; they will contemplate his character till all its 
virtues spread out and display themselves to their delighted vision, as 
the earliest astronomers, the shepherds on the plains of Babylon, gazed 
at the stars till they saw them form into clusters and constellations, 
overpowering at length the eyes of the beholders with the united blaze 
of a thousand lights. 

Grentlemen, we are at the point of a century from the birth of Wash- 
ington ; and what a century it has been ! During its course the human 
mind has seemed to proceed with a sort of geometric velocity, accom- 
plishing more than had been done in fives or tens of centuries preceding. 
Washington stands at the commencement of a new era, as well as at the 
head of the New World. A century from the birth of Washington 
has changed the world. The country of Washington has been the 
theatre on which a great part of that change has been wrought; and 
Washington himself a principal agent by which it has been accomplished. 
His age and his country are equally full of wonders ; and of both he is 
the chief. 

If the prediction of the poet, uttered a few years before his birth, be 
true ; if indeed it be designed by Providence that the proudest exhibi- 
tion of human character and human affairs shall be made on this theatre 
of the Western world ; if it be true that 

The four first acts already past, 

A fifth shall close the drama with the dayj 

Time's noblest offspring is the last — 

how could this imposing, swelling, final, scene be appropriately opened, 
how could its intense interest be adequately sustained, but by the intro- 
duction of just such a character as our Washington ? 

¥/^ashington had attained his manhood when that spark of liberty was 



WASHINGTON. 303 

struck out in his own country, which has since kindled into a flame, and 
shot its beams over the earth. In the flow of a century from his birth, 
the world has changed in science, in arts, in the extent of commerce, in 
the improvement of navigation, and in all that relates to the civilization 
of man. But it is the spirit of human freedom, the new elevation of 
individual man, in his moral, social, and political character, leading the 
whole long train of other improvements, which has most remarkably 
distinguished the era. Society, in this century, has not made its pro- 
gress, like Chinese skill, by a greater acuteness of ingenuity in trifles ; 
it has not merely lashed itself to an increased speed round the old circles 
of thought and action ; but it has assumed a new character, it has raised 
itself from heneath governments to a participation in governments ; it 
has mixed moral and political objects with the daily pursuits of indi- 
vidual men, and, with a freedom and strength before altogether un- 
known, it has applied to these objects the whole power of the human 
understanding. It has been the era, in short, when the social principle 
has triumphed over the feudal principle ; when society has maintained 
its rights against military power, and established, in foundations never 
hereafter to be shaken, its competency to govern itself. 

It was the extraordinary fortune of Washington, that, having been 
intrusted in revolutionary times with the supreme military command, 
and having fulfilled that trust with equal renown for wisdom and for 
valour, he should be placed at the head of the first government in which 
an attempt was to be made, on a large scale, to rear the fabric of social 
order on the basis of a written constitution, and of a pure representa- 
tive principle. A government was to be established, without a throne, 
without an aristocracy, without castes, orders, or privileges ] and this 
government, instead of being a democracy existing and acting within the 
walls of a single city, was to be extended over a vast country, of difter- 
ent climates, interests, and habits, and of various sects and sentiments 
of the Christian religion. The experiment certainly was entirely new. 
A popular government, of this extent, it was evident, could be framed 
only by carrying into full efi'ect the principle of representation, or of 
delegated power ; and the world was to see whether society could, by 
the strength of this principle, maintain its own peace and good govern- 
ment, carry forward its own great interests, and conduct itself to politi- 
cal renown and glory. By the benignity of Providence, this experiment, 
so full of interest to us and to our posterity for ever — so full of interest 
to the world, in its present generation, and in all its generations to come, 
was suff"ered to commence under the guidance of Washington. Destined 
for this high career, he was fitted for it by wisdom, by virtue, by patriot- 
ism, by discretion, by whatever can inspire confidence in man toward 
man. In entering on the untried scenes, early disappointment and the 
premature extinction of all hope of success would have been certain, 
had it not been that there did exist throughout the country, in a most 
extraordinary degree, an unwavering trust in him whose hand held the 
helm of affairs. 

I remarked, gentlemen, that the whole world was and is interested 
in the result of this experiment. And is it not so ? Do we deceive 



304 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ourselves, or is it true, that at this moment the career which this govern- 
ment is running is among the most attractive objects to the civilized 
world ? Do we deceive ourselves, or is it true, that at this moment that 
love of liberty and that understanding of its true principles, which are 
flying over the whole world, as on the wings of all the winds, are really 
and truly of American origin ? 

At the period of the birth of Washington, there existed in Europe 
no political liberty, in large communities, except the Provinces of Hol- 
land, and except that England herself had set a great example, so far 
as it went, by her glorious Revolution of 1688. Everywhere else, 
despotic power was predominant, and the feudal or military principle 
held the mass of mankind in hopeless bondage. One half of Europe 
•was crushed beneath the Bourbon sceptre, and no conception of political 
liberty, no hope even of religious toleration, existed among that nation 
which was America's first ally. The king was the state, the king was 
the country, the king was all. There was one king, with power not 
derived from his people, and too high to be questioned; and the rest 
were all subjects, with no political right, but obedience — all above was 
intangible power; all below quiet subjection. A recent occurrence in 
the French Chambers shows us how human sentiments on these subjects 
have changed. A minister had spoken of the " king's subjects." 
"There are no subjects,'^ exclaimed hundreds of voices at once, "in a 
country where the people make the king." 

Gentlemen, the spirit of human liberty and of free government, nur- 
tured and grown into strength and beauty in America, has stretched its 
course into the midst of the nations. Like an emanation from Heaven, 
it has gone forth and it will not return void. It must change, it is fast 
changing the face of the earth. Our great, our high duty, is to show, 
in our own example, that this spirit is a spirit of health, as well as a 
spirit of power ; that its benignity is as great as its strength ; that its 
efficacy to secure individual rights, social relations, and moral order, is 
equal to the irresistible force with which it prostrates principalities and 
powers. The world, at this moment, is regarding us with a willing, but 
something of a fearful admiration. Its deep and awful anxiety is to 
learn whether free states may be stable, as well as free ; whether popular 
power may be trusted, as well as feared. In short, whether wise, regular, 
and virtuous self-government is a vision, for the contemplation of theo- 
rists, or a truth, established, illustrated, and brought into practice, in 
the country of Washington. 

Gentlemen, for the earth which we inhabit, and the whole circle of 
the sun — for all the unborn races of mankind, we seem to hold in our 
hands, for their weal or wo, the fate of this experiment. If we fail, 
who shall venture the repetition ? If our example shall prove to be 
one, not of encouragement, but of terror — not fit to be imitated, but fit 
only to be shunned, where else shall the world look for free models ? If 
this great Western iSun be struck out of the firmament, at what other 
fountain shall the lamp of liberty hereafter be lighted ? What other 
orb shall emit a ray, to glimmer even, on the darkness of the world ? 

Gentlemen, there is no danger of our overrating or overstating the 



WASHINGTON. 305 

important part wliicli we are now acting in human affairs. It should 
not flatter our personal self-respect, but it should reanimate our patriotic 
virtues, and inspire us with a deeper and more solemn sense both of our 
privileges and of our duties. We cannot wish better for our country, 
nor for the world, than that the same spirit which influenced Washington 
may influence all who succeed him ; and that that same blessing from 
above which attended his efforts may also attend theirs. 

The principles of Washington's administration are not left doubtful. 
They are to be found in the Constitution itself — in the great measures 
recommended and approved by him — in his speeches to Congress, and 
in that most interesting paper, his Farewell Address to the People of 
the United States. The success of the government under his adminis- 
tration is the highest proof of the soundness of their principles. And, 
after an experience of thirty-five years, what is there which an enemy 
could condemn — what is there which either his friends, or the friends 
of the country, could wish to have been otherwise ? I speak, of course, 
of great measures and leading principles. 

In the first place, all his measures were right in intent. He stated 
the whole basis of his own great character, when he told the country, 
in the homely phrase of the proverb, that honesty is the best policy. 
One of the most just and most striking things ever said of him, is, that, 
^'' he clianged mankind's idea of political greatness. '' To commanding 
talent, and to success, the common elements of such greatness, he added 
a disregard of self, a spotlessness of motive, a steady submission to every 
public and private duty, which threw far into the shade the whole crowd 
of vulgar great. The object of his regard was the whole country. No 
part of it was enough to fill his enlarged patriotism. His love of glory, 
so far as that may be supposed to have influenced him at all, spurned 
every thing short of general approbation. It would have been nothing 
to him, that his partisans or his favourites outnumbered, or outvoted, or 
outmanaged, those of other leaders. He had no favourites — he rejected 
all partisanship ; and, acting honestly for the universal good, he deserved 
what he has so richly enjoyed, the universal love. 

His principle it was, to act right, and to trust the people for support ; 
his principle it was not, to follow the lead of sinister and selfish ends, 
and to rely on the little arts of party delusion to obtain public sanction 
■ for such a course. Born for his country, and for the world, he did not 
give up to party what was meant for mankind. The consequence is, 
that his fame is as durable as his principles, as lasting as truth and virtue 
themselves. While the hundreds whom party excitement, and tem- 
porary circumstances, and casual combinations, have raised into tran- 
sient notoriety, sink again, like their bubbles, bursting and dissolving 
into the great ocean, Washington's fame is like the rock, which bounds 
that ocean, and at whose feet its billows are destined to break harmlessly 
for ever. 

The maxims upon which Washington conducted our foreign relations 
were few and simple. The first was, an entire and indisputable impar- 
tiality tow.ards foreign states. He adhered to this rule of public conduct, 
against very strong inducements to depart from it, and when the popu- 
2a2 20 



306 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

larity of the moment seemed to favour such a departure. In the next 
place, he maintained true dignity and unsullied honour in all commu- 
nications with foreign states. It was among the high duties devolved 
upon him, to introduce our new government into the circle of civilized 
states and powerful nations. Not arrogant or assuming, with no unbe- 
coming or supercilious bearing, he yet exacted for it, from all others, 
entire and punctilious respect. He demanded, and he obtained at once, 
a standing of perfect equality for his country in the society of nations ; 
nor was there a prince or potentate of his day, whose personal character 
carried with it, into the intercourse with other states, a greater degree 
of respect and veneration. 

He regarded other nations only as they stood in natural relations to 
us. With their internal affairs, their political parties and dissensions, 
he scrupulously abstained from all interference ; and, on the other hand, 
he spiritedly repelled all such interference by others with us or our con- 
cerns. His sternest rebuke, the most indignant measure of his whole 
administration, was aimed against such an attempted interference. He 
felt it as an attempt to wound the national honour, and resented it 
accordingly. 

The reiterated admonitions in his Farewell Address show his deep 
fears, that foreign influence would insinuate itself into our counsels, 
through the channels of domestic dissension, and obtain a sympathy 
with our own temporary parties. Against all such dangers, he most 
earnestly entreats the country to guard itself. He appeals to its patriot- 
ism, to its respect, to its own honour, to every consideration connected 
with its welfare and happiness, to resist, at the very beginning, all ten- 
dencies toward such connection of foreign interests with our own affairs. 
With a tone of earnestness nowhere else found, even in his last affec- 
tionate farewell advice to his countrymen, he says — " Against the insi- 
dious wiles of foreign influence, (I conjure you to believe me, fellow- 
citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake ', 
since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the 
most baneful foes of republican government." 

Lastly, on the subject of foreign relations, Washington never forgot 
that we had interests peculiar to ourselves. The primary political con- 
cerns of Europe, he saw, did not affect us. We had nothing to do with 
her balance of power, her family compacts, or her successions to thrones. 
We were placed in a condition favourable to neutrality during European 
wars, and to the enjoyment of all the great advantages of that relation. 
" Why, then," he asks us, " why forego the advantages of so peculiar 
a situation ? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground ? Why, 
by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entan- 
gle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rival- 
ship, interest, humour, or caprice V 

Indeed, gentlemen, Washington's Farewell Address is full of truths, 
important at all times, and particularly deserving consideration at the 
present. With a sagacity which brought the future before him, he saw 
and pointed out the dangers that even at this moment most imminently 
threaten us. I hardly know how a greater favour of that kind could 



WASHINGTON. 307 

now be clone to tlie community than by a renewed and wide diffusion of 
that admirable paper, and an earnest invitation to every man in the 
country to re-peruse and consider it. Its political maxims are inva- 
luable ; its exhortations to love of country and to brotherly affection 
among citizens, touching; and the solemnity with which it urges the 
observance of moral duties, and impresses the power of religious obli- 
gation, gives to it the highest character of truly disinterested, sincere, 
parental advice. 

The domestic policy of Washington found its pole-star in the avowed 
objects of the Constitution itself. He sought so to administer that con- 
stitution as to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure do- 
mestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. These were objects inte- 
resting in the highest degree to the whole country, and his policy em- 
braced the whole country. 

Among his earliest and most important duties was the organization 
of the government itself, the choice of his confidential advisers, and the 
various appointments to office. This duty, so important and delicate, 
when a whole government was to be organized, and all its offices for the 
first time filled, was yet not difficult to him ; for he had no sinister ends 
to accomplish, no clamorous partisans to gratify, no pledges to redeem, 
no object to be regarded, but simply the public good. It was a plain, 
straightforward matter — a mere honest choice of good men^ for the 
public service. 

His own singleness of purpose, his disinterested patriotism, were 
evinced by the selection of his first cabinet, and by the manner in which 
he filled the courts of justice, and other places of high trust. He 
sought for men fit for offices ; not for offices which might suit men. 

Above personal considerations, above local considerations, above party 
considerations, he felt that he could only discharge the sacred trust 
which the country had placed in his hands, by a diligent inquiry after 
real merit, and a conscientious preference of virtue and talent. The 
whole country was the field of his selection. He explored that whole 
field, looking only for whatever it contained most worthy and distin- 
guished. He was, indeed, most successful, and he deserved success, for 
the purity of his motives, the liberality of his sentiments, and his en- 
larged and manly policy. 

Washington's administration established the national credit, made 
provision for the public debt, and for that patriotic army whose interests 
and welfare were always so dear to him ; and by laws wisely framed, 
and of admirable eff'ect, raised the commerce and navigation of the 
country, almost at once, from depression and ruin, to a state of pros- 
perity. Nor were his eyes open to these interests alone. He viewed 
with equal concern its agriculture and manufactures ; and so far as they 
came within the regular exercise of the powers of this government, they 
experienced regard and favour. 

It should not be omitted, gentlemen, even in this slight reference to 
the general measures and general principles of the first president, that 
he saw and felt the full value and importance of the judicial department 



308 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

of the government. An npriglit and able administration of the laws, 
he held to be indispensable to public happiness and public liberty. The 
temple of justice, in his judgment, was a sacred place, and he would 
profane and pollute it, who should assign any to minister in it, not spot- 
less in character, not incorruptible in integrity, not competent by talent 
and learning, not fit objects of unhesitating trust. 

Among other admonitions, Washington left us, in his last communi- 
cation to his country, an exhortation against the excesses of party spirit. 
A fire not to be quenched, he yet conjures us not to fan and feed the 
flame. Undoubtedly, gentlemen, it is the greatest danger of oiir system 
and of our time. Undoubtedly, if that system should be overthrown, 
it will be the work of excessive party spirit, acting on the government, 
which is dangerous enough, or acting in the government, which is a 
thousand times more dangerous — for government then becomes nothing 
but an organized pavty ; — and in the strange vicissitudes of human 
aifairs, it may come at last, perhaps, to exhibit the singular paradox of 
government itself being in opposition to its own powers, at war with the 
very elements of its own existence. Such cases are hopeless. As men 
may be protected against murder, but cannot be guarded against suicide, 
so government may be shielded from the assaults of external foes, but 
nothing can save it when it chooses to lay violent hands on itself. 

Finally, gentlemen, there was in the breast of Washington one senti- 
ment so deeply felt, so constantly uppermost, that no proper occasion 
escaped without its utterance. From the letter which he signed, in be- 
half of the convention, when the Constitution was sent out to the people, 
to the moment when he put his hand to that last paper in which he ad- 
d)'essed his countrymen, the Union, the Union, was the great object of 
his thoughts. In that first letter, he tells them that to him, and his 
brethren of the convention, union is the greatest interest of every true 
American; and in that last paper he conjures them to regard that unity 
of government, which constitutes them one people, as the very palladium 
of their prosperity and safety, and the security of liberty itself. He 
regarded the unian of these States, not so much one of our blessings 
as the great treasure-house which contained them all. Here, in his 
judgment, was the great magazine of all our means of prosperity ) here, 
as he thought, and as every true American still thinks, are deposited all 
oui- animating prospects^all our solid hopes for future greatness. He 
has taught us to maintain this government, not by seeking to enlarge 
its powers on the one hand, nor by surrendering them on the other ; 
but by an administration of them, at once firm and moderate, adapted 
for objects truly national, and carried on in a spirit of justice and equity. 

The extreme solicitude for the preservation of the union, at all times 
manifested by him, shows not only the opinion he entertained of its use- 
fulness, but his clear perception of those causes which were likely to 
spring up to endanger it, and which, if once they should overthrow the 
present system, would leave little hope of any future beneficial re-union. 
Of all the presumptions indulged by presumptuous man, that is one of 
the rashest, which looks for repeated and fcivourable opportunities for 
the deliberate establishment of a united government over distinct and 



WASHINGTON. 309 

widely extended communities. Such a thing has happened once in 
human affairs, and but once ; the event stands out as a prominent 
exception to all ordinary history, and, imless we suppose ourselves run- 
ning into an age of miracles, we may not expect its repetition. 

Washington, therefore, could regard, and did regard, nothing as of 
paramount political interest, but the integrity of the union itself. With 
a united government, well administered, he saw we had nothing to fear; 
and without it nothing to hope. The sentiment is just, audits moment- 
ous truth should solemnly impi'ess the whole country. If we might 
regard our country as personated in the spirit of Yv'ashington ; if wo 
might consider him as representing her, in her past renown, her pi-esent 
prosperity, and her fature career, and as in that character demanding of 
us ail to account for our conduct, as political men, or as private citizens, 
how should he answer him who has ventured to talk of disunion and 
dismemberment ? Or, how should he answer him who dwells perpe- 
tually on local interests, and fans every kindling flame of local prejudice ? 
How should he answer him who would array state against state, interest 
against interest, and party against party, careless of the continuance of 
that unity of government which constitutes us one people ? 

G-entlemen, the political prosperity which this country has attained, 
and which it now enjoys, it has acquired mainly through the instrumen- 
tality of the present government. While this agent continues, the 
capacity of attaining to still higher degrees of prosperity exists also. 
We have, while this lasts, a political life, capable of beneficial exertion, 
with power to resist or overcome misfortunes, to sustain us against the 
ordinary accidents of human affairs, and to promote, by active efforts, 
every public interest. But dismemberment strikes at the very being 
which preserves these faculties ; it would lay its rude and ruthless hand 
on this great agent itself. It would sweep away, not only what we pos- 
sess, but all power of regaining lost, or acquiring new possessions. It 
would leave the country, not only bereft of its prosperity and happiness, 
but without limbs, or organs, or faculties, by which to exert itself here- 
after, in the pursuit of that prosperity and happiness. 

Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome. If 
disastrous war sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation 
may renew it ;• if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish 
it ; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, 
they will grow green again, and ripen to future harvests. It were but 
a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crumble; if its lofty 
pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the 
dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall recon- 
struct the fabric of demolished government 'i Who shall rear again the 
well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty ? Who shall frame 
together the skilful architecture which unites national sovereignty with 
state rights, individual security, and public prosperity ? No, gentle- 
men, if these columns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the 
Colosseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a 
melancholy immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them, 
than were ever shed over the monuments of Roman or Grecian art : for 



310 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

they will be the remnants of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Kome 
ever saw — the edifice of Constitutional American Liberty. 

But, gentlemen, let us hope for better things. Let us trust in that 
gracious Being, who has hitherto held our country as in the hollow of 
his hand. Let us trust to the virtue and the intelligence of the people, 
and to the eflicacy of religious obligation. Let us trust to the influence 
of Washington's example. Let us hope that that fear of Heaven which 
expels all other fear, and that regard to duty which transcends all other 
regard, may influence public men and private citizens, and lead our coun- 
try still onward in her happy career. Full of these gratifying anticipa- 
tions and hopes, let us look forward to the end of that century which is 
now commenced. A hundred years hence, other disciples of Washington 
will celebrate his birth, with no less of sincere admiration than we now 
commemorate it. When they shall meet as we now meet, to do them- 
selves and him that honour, so surely as they shall see the blue summits 
of his native mountains rise in the horizon ; so surely as they shall 
behold the river on whose banks he lived, and on whose banks he rests, 
still flowing to the sea ; so surely may they see, as we now see, the flag 
of the Union floating on the top of the Capitol ; and then, as now, may 
the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely 
than this our own country. 



YOUTHFUL FRIENDSHIPS. 



In youthful minds there is commonly a strong propensity for particu- 
lar intimacies and friendships. Youth, indeed, is the season when friend- 
ships are sometimes formed, which not only continue through succeeding 
life, but which glow to the last with a tenderness unknown to the con- 
nections begun in cooler years. This propensity, therefore, is not to be 
discouraged, though at the same time it must be regulated with circum- 
spection and care. Too many of the pretended friendships of youth are 
mere combinations of pleasure. They are often founded on capricious 
likings, suddenly contracted, and as suddenly dissolved. Sometimes 
they are the efiect of interested complaisance and flattery on the one side, 
and of credulous fondness on the other. Beware of such rash and dan- 
gerous connections, which may afterwards load you with shame and 
dishonour. Remember, that by the character of those whom you choose 
for your friends, your own is likely to be formed, and will certainly be 
judged of by the world. Be slow, therefore, and cautious in contracting 
intimacy ; but when a virtuous friendship is once established, consider it 
as a sacred engagement. Expose not yourselves to the reproach of lightness 
and inconstancy, which always bespeaks either a trifling or base mind. 
Reveal none of the secrets of your friend. Be faithful to his interests. 
Forsake him not in danger. Abhor the thought of acquiring any advan- 
tage by his prejudice or hurt. 



■WHAT IS LIFE? — THE FOUNTAIN OF MARAH. 



311 



WHAT IS LIFE? 



An eagle flew up in his heavenward fliglit. 

Far out of the reach of human sight. 

And gazed on the earth from his lordly height 

In the clouds of the upper air: — 
And this is life, he exultingly screams; 
To soar without peer where the lightning gleams. 
And look unljlenehed on the sun's gorgeous beams. 

And know of no harrowing care. 

A lion leap'd forth from his bloody bed, 

And roar'd till it seem'd he would wake the dead ; 

And man and beast from him tremblingly fled. 

As tliough there was deatli in the tone : — 
And this is life, he triumphantly cried ; 
To hold my domain in the forest wide, 
Imprison'd alone by the ocean's tide 

And the ice of the frozen zone. 

It is life, said a whale, to swim the deep ; 
O'er hills submerged and abysses to sweep. 
Where the gods of ocean their vigils keep 

In the fathomless giilf below : — 
To bask on the bosom of tropic seas. 
And inhale the fragrance of Ceylon's breeze. 
Or sport where the turbulent waters freeze. 

In the climes of eternal snow. 

It is life, says a tireless albatross. 

To skim through the air when the black waves toss. 

In the storm that has swept the earth across. 

And never to wish for rest: — 
To sleep on the breeze as it softly flies. 
My perch in the air, my shelter the skies. 
And build my nest on the billows that rise, 

And break with a beautiful crest. 

It is life, said -a wild gazelle to leap 
Prom crag to crag of the mountainous steep, 
■^Miere the cloud's icy tears in imrity sleep. 
Like the marble brow of death : — 



To stand unmoved on the uttermost verge 

Of the perilous height, and hear the surge 

Of tlie waters beneath, that onward urge, 

As if sent by a demon's breath. 

It is life, I hear a butterfly say. 

To revel in blooming gardens by day, 

And nestle in cups of flowerets gay, 

MTien the stars the heavens illume : — 
To steal from the rose its delicate hue ; 
To sip from the hyacinth glittering dew. 
And catch from the beds of the violet blue 

The richest and sweetest perfume. 

It is life, a majestic war-horse neigh'd. 
To prance in the glare of battle and blade. 
Where thousands in terrible death are laid. 

And to scent of the streaming gore : — 
To rush unappall'd through the fiery heat. 
And to trample the dead beneath my feet. 
To the trumpet's clang, and the drum's loud beat. 

And hear the artillery roar. 

It is life, said a savage, with hideous yell. 
To roam unshackled the mountain and dell. 
And feel my bosom with majesty swell, 

As the primal monarch of all :—x 
To gaze on the earth, the sky, and the sea. 
And know that like them I am chainless and free, 
And never, while breathing, to bend the knee. 

But at the ilanitou's call. 

An aged Christian went tottering by. 

And white was his hair, and dim was his eye. 

And his broken spirit seem'd ready to fly 

While he said, with faltering breath ; — 
It is life, to move, from the heart's first throes, 
Through youth and manhood to age's snows, 
In a ceaseless circle of joys and woes: — 

It is life to prepare for death ! 



THE FOUNTAIN OF MAKAH. 



BY MES. HE3IAKS. 



" And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. 
"And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? 

" And he cried iinto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which, when he had cast into the waters, 
the waters were made sweet." — Ex. xv. 22 — 25. 



Where is the tree the prophet threw 

Into the bitter wave ? 
Left it no scion wl\ere it grew, 

The thirsty soul to save J 

Hath nature lost the hidden power, 

Its precious foliage shed ? 
Is there no distant eastern bower. 

With such sweet leaves o'erspread 1 



Nay, wherefore ask?— since gifts are ours. 

Which yet may well imbue 
Earth's many troubled founts with showers 

Of Heaven's own balmy dew. 

Oh ! mingled with the cup of grief 

Let faith's deep spirit be. 
And every prayer shall win a leaf 

From that blest healing tree. 



812 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 

The following patriotic sentiments are extracted from speeches deli- 
vered in the Senate of the United States, on subjects connected with the 
lamentable disturbances in South Carolina, some years since, in relation 
to nullifying certain laws of the United States. 

BY MR. WEBSTER. 

What are the oppressions experienced under the Union, calling for 
measures which thus threaten to sever and destroy it ? What invasions 
of public liberty, what ruin to private happiness, what long list of rights 
violated, or wrongs unredressed, is to justify to the country,' to posterity, 
and to the world, this assault upon the free Constitution of the United 
States, this great and glorious work of our fathers ? At this very mo- 
ment, sir, the whole land smiles in peace, and rejoices in plenty. A 
general and high prosperity pervades the country; and, judging by the 
common standard, by increase of population and wealth; or judging by 
the opinions of that portion of her people not embarked in those dangei*- 
ous and desperate measures, this prosperity overspreads South Carolina 
herself. 

Thus, happy at home, our country at the same time, holds high the 
character of her institutions, her power, her rapid growth, and her future 
destiny, in the eyes of all foreign states. One danger, only, creates 
hesitation; one doubt, only, exists to darken the otherwise unclouded 
brightness of that aspect which she exhibits to the view and to the 
admiration of the world. Need I say, that that doubt respects the per- 
manency of our Union ? And, need I say, that that doubt is now caused, 
more than by any thing else, by these very proceedings of South Caro- 
lina? Sir, all Europe is, at this moment, beholding us, and looking for 
the issue of this controversy; those who hate free institutions, with 
malignant hope ; those who love them, with deep anxiety and shivering 
fear. 

■ The cause, then, sir, the cause ! Let the world know the cause which 
has thus induced one State of the Union to bid defiance to the power of 
the whole, and openly to talk of secession. 

Sir, the world will scarcely believe that this whole controversy, and, 
all the desperate measures which its support requires, have no other 
foundation than a difference of opinion, upon a provision of the Consti- 
tution, between a majority of the people of South Carolina, on one side, 
and a vast majority of the whole people of the United States on the 
other. It will not credit the, fact, it will not admit the possibility that, 
in an enlightened age, in a free, popular republic, u.nder a government 
where the people govern, as they must always govern under such systems, 
by majorities, at a time of unprecedented happiness, without practical 
oppression, without evils, such as may not only be pretended, but felt 
•and experienced— evils, not slight or temporally, but deep, permanent, 
and intolerable — a single State should rush into conflict with all the rest/ 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 313 

attempt to put down the power of the Union by her own laws, and to 
support those laws by her military power, and thus break up and destroy 
the world's last hope. And well the world may be incredulous. We, 
who hear and see it, can ourselves hardly yet believe it. Even after all 
that had preceded it, this ordinance* struck the country with amaze- 
ment. It was incredible and inconceivable, that South Carolina should 
thus plunge headlong into resistance to the laws on a matter of opinion, 
and on a question in which the preponderance of opinion, both of 
the present day and of all past time, was so overwhelming against 
her. The ordinance declares that Congress has exceeded its just powers, 
by laying duties on imports intended for the protection of manufactures. 
This is the opinion of South Carolina • and, on the strength of that 
opinion, she nullifies the laws. Yet, has the rest of the country no right 
to its opinions also ? Is one State to sit sole arbiters ? She maintains 
that those laws are plain, deliberate, and palpable violations of the Con- 
stitution ; that she has a sovereign right to decide this matter ° and, that, 
having so decided, she is authorized to resist their execution, by her own 
sovereign power; and she declares that she will resist it, though such 
resistance shatter the Union into atoms. 

Mr. President, I do not intend to discuss the propriety of these laws 
at large ; but I will ask, how they are shown to be thus plainly and 
palpably unconstitutional? Have they no countenance at all in the 
Constitution itself? Are they quite new in the history of the Govern- 
ment? Are they a sudden and violent usurpation on the rights of the 
States ? Sir, what will the civilized world say ; what will posterity say, 
when they learn that similar laws have existed from the very foundation 
of the Government; that for thirty years the power was never ques- 
tioned ; and that no State in the Union has more freely and unequivocally 
admitted it than South Carolina herself? 

^ ^^ ^i ^ ^,: ^ il: ijc 

Mr. President, if the friends of nullification should be able to propa- 
gate their opinions, and give them practical effect, they would, in my 
judgment, prove therhselves the most skilful "architects of ruin," the 
most effectual extinguishers of high-raised expectation, the greatest 
blasters of human hopes which any age has produced. They would 
stand up to proclaim, in tones which would pierce the ears of half the 
human race, that the last great experiment of representative government 
had failed. They would send forth sounds, at the hearing of which the 
doctrine of the divine right of kings would feel, even in its grave, a return- 
ing sensation of vitality and resuscitation. Millions of eyes, of those who 
now feed their inherent love of liberty on the success of the American 
example, would turn away from beholding our dismemberment, and find 
no place on earth whereon to rest their gratified sight. Amidst the incan- 
tations and orgies of nullification, secession, disunion, and revolution, 
would be celebrated the funeral rites of constitutional and republican 
liberty. 

* The Ordinanoe papsed by the South Carolina Convention, i^iirporting to nullify cer- 
tain laws of the United States. 
2B 



314 PIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

But, sir, if tlie government do its duty; if it act witli firmness and 
with moderation, these opinions cannot prevail. Be assured, sir, be 
assured, that, among the political sentiments of this people, the love of 
union is still uppermost. They will stand fast by the Constitution, and 
by those who defend it. I rely on no temporary expedients — on no 
political combination — but I rely on the true American feeling, the 
genuine patriotism of the people, and the imperative decision of the 
public voice. Disorder and confusion, indeed, may arise ; scenes of com- 
motion and contests are threatened, and, perhaps, may come. V/ith my 
whole heart, I pray for the continuance of the domestic peace and quiet 
of the country. I desire most ardently the restoration of affection, and 
harmony to all its parts. I desire that every citizen of the whole country 
may look to this government with no other sentiments but those of 
grateful respect and attachment. But I cannot yield, even to kind feel- 
ings, the cause of the Constitution, the true glory of the country, and the 
great trust which we hold in our hands for succeeding ages. If the 
Constitution cannot be maintained without meeting these scenes of com- 
motion and contest, however unwelcome, they must come. 

We cannot, we must not, we dare not omit to do that which, in our 
judgment, the safety of the Union requires. Not regardless of conse- 
quences, we must yet meet consequences; seeing the hazards which 
surround the discharge of public duty, it must yet be discharged. For 
myself, sir, I shun no responsibility justly devolving on me, here or 
elsewhere, in attempting to maintain the cause. I am tied to it by in- 
dissoluble bands of affection and duty, and I shall cheerfully partake of 
its fortunes and its fate. I am ready to perform my own appropriate 
part whenever and wherever the occasion may call on me, and to take 
my chance among those upon whom blows may fall first and fall thick- 
est. I shall exert every faculty I possess in aiding to prevent the Con- 
stitution from being nullified, destroyed, or impaired ; and even should 
I see it fall, I will still, with a voice, feeble perhaps, but earnest as ever 
issued from human lips, and with fidelity and zeal which nothing shall 
extinguish, call on the PEOPLE to come to its rescue. 



BY MR. BIVES. 

It is time, Mr. President, to put an end to our unhappy divisions. 
It has been my fortune, in another situation, to witness the effects they 
have produced on the character and consideration of our government 
abroad, and on the generous efforts of the friends of liberty in other 
parts of the world. Sir, my heart has swollen with a pride and exultation 
which can be appreciated only by those who have felt them in a foreign 
land, when I have heard my country the theme of every tongue — its 
institutions, with the glorious results of liberty and happiness they have 
produced, the subject of universal envy and admiration, rebuking, on 
the one hand, the gloomy spirit of despotism, and animating, on the 
other, the generous aspirations of fi'eedom. But, in a few short months, 
how has this scene been changed ! The language of admiration and 



SOUTH CAEOLINA. 315 

respect lost in that of indifference and distrust ; the votaries of liberty 
discouraged and confounded; the disciples of legitimacy exulting in the 
failure of the only system of free government which ever promised a 
perfect success ; all Europe filled with predictions of a speedy dissolu- 
tion of our Union, and consigning us henceforward to the same rank 
of impotence and anarchy as the unhappy and distracted States of the 
southern part of our own continent. 

These have been the bitter fruits of our divisions abroad. What have 
they been at home ? In the midst of unexampled prosperity, anxiety 
and alarm pervading every bosom — that sacred Union, in regard to 
which we were taught, by the father of our country, to " discountenance 
whatever might suggest even a suspicion that it could, in any event, be 
abandoned," openly questioned and decried, and millions trembling for 
its fate. Sir, let us put an end to these divisions — let us disappoint the 
malignant predictions of the enemies of free government — let us restore 
confidence to the patriot at home, and hope to the votary of freedom 
abroad. I do, in my conscience, believe that the preservation of the 
Union is our only security for liberty. If we are to be broken into 
separate confederacies, constant wars and collisions with each other must 
ensue, out of which will grow up large military establishments, perpetual 
and burdensome taxes, and overshadowing executive power ; and amid 
these deleterious influences, what hope can there be that liberty will 
survive ? 

It is here, I confess, that I see the danger of military despotism, and 
not where the imagination of the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 
Calhoun) has found it. Is not the actual condition of South Carolina, 
in this respect, an impressive admonition to us on this subject — the 
whole State converted into a camp, the executive and other authorities 
armed with dictatorial powers, the rights of conscience set at naught, 
and an unsparing proscription ready to disfranchise one half of her 
population ! Sir, this is but a prefiguration of the evils and calamities 
to which every portion of this country would be destined, if the Union 
should be dissolved. Let us, then, rally round that sacred Union, fixing 
it anew, and establishing it for ever on the immutable basis of equal 
justice, of mutual amity and kindness, and an administration at once 
firm and paternal. Let us do this, and we shall carry back peace to our 
distracted country, happiness to the affrighted fireside, restore stability 
to our threatened institutions, and give hope and confidence once more 
to the friends of liberty throughout the world. Let us do this, and we 
shall be, in short, what a bountiful Providence has heretofore made us, 
and designed us for ever to remain, the freest and happiest people under 
the sun. 



BY MR. CLAYTON. 



The honourable Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) has told 
us that all human institutions, like those who form them, contain within 
themselves the elements of their own destruction, and that our own go- 



316 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

vernmeDt is now esliibiting their operation. To the general philosophic 
remark I would not have objected, but for its application. All the 
works of man are destined to decay, but while the great body of the 
people shall remain true to themselves, our government can never be 
destroyed, for it contains within itself endless and ever renascent ener- 
gies, which must bring it out in triumph against every effort to destroy 
it. From foreign force it can have nothing to fear; it dreads nothing 
now from any section of the Union which shall ever seek to protect 
itself from the just operation of our laws by foreign intervention. Yes, 
sir, a foreign alliance, spught by any member of this confederacy for the 
purpose of making war upon us, would be the means, under heaven, of 
immediately rallying every patriot, of every political party, under the 
broad banner of the republic. I agree, however, sir, that the mortal 
blow to our liberties may be struck by a hand which has been indebted 
to us for existence. The shaft which shall stretch the American eagle 
bleeding and lifeless in the dust must be feathered only from his own 
pinions ; and, oh ! how bitter will be the curses of men, in all ages to 
come, against the traitorous heart and the parricidal hand of him who 
shall loose that fatal arrow from the string. 

Remember liim, the villain, righteous heaven, 
In the great day of vengeance ! Blast the traitor, 
And his pernicious counsels, who, for wealth, 
For power, the pride of greatness, or revenge, 
Would plunge his native land in civil, wars. 



BY MR. CLAY, ON THE BILL TO MODIFY THE TARIEE. 

The difference between the friends and the foes of the compromise, 
under consideration, is, that they would, in the enforcing act, send forth 
alone a flaming sword. We would send out that also, but, along with it, the 
olive-branch, as a message of peace. They cry out, The law ! the law ! the 
law ! Power ! power ! power ! We, too, reverence the law, and bow to 
the supremacy of its obligation; but we are in favour of the law executed 
in mildness, and of power tempered with mercy. They, as we think, 
would hazard a civil commotion, beginning in South Carolina and extend- 
ing, God only knows where; while we would vindicate the authority of 
the Federal G-overnment. We are for peace, if possible, union and 
liberty. We want no war, above all, no civil war, no family strife. We 
want to see no sacked cities, no desolated fields, no smoking ruins, no 
streams of American blood shed by American a,rms ! 

I have been accused of ambition in presenting this measure. Ambi- 
tion ! inordinate ambition! If I had thought of myself only, I never 
should have brought it forward. I know well the perils to which I ex- 
pose m.yself ;" the risk of alienating faithful and valued friends, with but 
too little prospect of making new ones, if any new ones could compen- 
sate for the loss of those whom we have long tried and loved; and' the 
honest misconceptions both of friends and foes. Ambition! If I had 
listened to its soft and seducing whispers; if I had yielded myself to the 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 317 

dictates of a cold, calculating, and prudential policy, I would liave stood 
still and unmoved. I might even have silently gazed on the raging storm, 
enjoyed its loudest thunders, and left those who are charged with the 
care of the vessel of state to conduct it as they could. * * * 
* * * I am the candidate for no office. I never expect 

to be the candidate for any office the Amei'ican people can give me, 
united or separated. If I can but appease the storm now raging in this 
Union, my ambition is gratified — gratified — gratified. I ask for no 
more — I desire no more than to see us once more, as a band of brothers, 
linked in a common fraternity. Let me do this — pass this bill — and I 
will retire with content to the lawns and gi'oves of my own Ashland. 
I will there, among those I love, solace a heart too often wounded in 
public life — with the calmness and repose of domestic tranquillity — and 
from my friends and my family, I shall meet that cordialitj' and that 
sympathy I now so ardently desire. They know me — they understand 
me. I appeal to my God and to them for the sincerity of my motives. 
Yes, I have ambition, but it is the ambition of being the humble instru- 
ment, in the hands of Providence, to reconcile a divided people — once 
more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted land. The pleasing 
ambition of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, pros- 
perous, and fraternal people ! 



EXTRACT PROM MR. POINSETT's SPEECH, DELIYERED IN CHARLESTON, 
SOUTH CAROLINA, DURING THE NULLIFICATION EXCITEMENT. 

Wherever I have been, I have been proud of being a citizen of this 
republic, and to the remotest corners of the earth, have walked erect and 
secure under that banner which our opponents would tear down and 
trample under foot. I was in Mexico when the town was taken by 
assault. The house of the American ambassador was then, as it ought 
to be, the refuge of the distressed and persecuted j it was pointed out to 
the infuriated soldiery as a place filled with their enemies. They rushed 
to the attack. My only defence was the flag of my country, and it was 
flung out at the instant that hundreds of muskets were levelled at us. 
Mr. Mason (a braver man never stood by his friend in the hour of dan- 
ger) and myself placed ourselves beneath its waving folds, and the attack 
was suspended. We did not blench, for we felt strong in the protecting 
arm of this mighty republic. We told them that the flag that waved 
over us was the banner of that nation to whose example they owed their 
liberties, and to whose protection they were indebted for their safety. 
The scene changed as by enchantment j those men who were on the point 
of attacking and massacring the inhabitants, cheered the flag of our 
country, and placed sentinels to protect it from outrage. Fellow-citizens, 
in such a moment as that, would it have been any protection to me and 
mine to have proclaimed myself a Carolinian ? Should I have been here 
to tell you this tale if I had hung out the Palmetto and single star ? 
Be assured that, to be respected abroad, we must maintain our place in 
the Uuion. 
2s2 



318 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



SINGULAR INCIDENT. 



Several years ago there was a charity sermon given out to be 
preached, one Sabbath evening in a dissenting chapel, at a seaport town 
in the west of England. When the preacher ascended the pulpit, he 
thus addressed his hearers: — "My brethren, before proceeding to the 
duties of this evening, allow me to relate a short anecdote. Many years 
have now elapsed since I was last within the walls of this house. IJpon 
that evening the pastor of the congregation (of which many now present 
must have formed a part) addressed his hearers for the same benevolent 
purpose as that for which I am now about to appeal to you. Among 
the hearers came three evil-disposed young men, with the intention not 
only of scoffing at the minister of Grod, but with their pockets filled with 
stones for the purpose of assaulting him. After the minister had spoken 
a few sentences, one of the three said, 'Damn him, let us be at him.' 
But the second replied, ' No, stop till we hear what he makes of this 
point.' The minister went on for some time, when the second said, 
' We've heard enough now — throw !' But the third interfered, saying, 
'He's not so foolish as I expected; let us hear him out.' The preacher 
concluded his discourse without being interrupted, and went home amidst 
the blessings of his hearers, and the approbation of Grod to his heart. 
Now mark me, my brethren — of these three young men, one of them 
was executed a few months ago, at Newgate, for forgery — the second at 
this moment lies under sentence of death in the jail of this city for mur- 
der — the other," continued the minister, with great emotion — " the third, 
through the infinite goodness of Grod, is even now about to address you — 
listen to him !" 



VALUE OF THE UNION. 

As individuals, we have no more interest in preserving the union of 
these States than those who are ready to sacrifice it rather than see pro- 
tection withdrawn or withheld from any one branch of domestic industry. 
But, nevertheless, we have so much interest at stake, that we regard dol- 
lars and cents, even though swelled to millions, as unworthy of a thought, 
when contrasted with our hitherto unbroken and happy union. When 
once this golden chain shall be dissolved — if such is to be its fate — we 
shall not only be disgraced in the eyes of all civilized nations, but we 
shall feel the shock through " every vein of this wide empire," palsying 
industry, depreciating property, and preparing the way for new disas- 
ters. If " freedom shrieked as Kosciusko fell," what will be her emo- 
tions when she sees that nation fall for which Kosciusko considered his 
blood a sacrifice almost too mean to be offered ? — Hew York Journal of 
Coinmerce. 



LAST WORDS OF EMMETT. — SATURDAY NIGHT. 319 



LAST WORDS OF EGBERT EMMETT. 

If the spirit of the illustrious dead participate in the concerns and 
cares of those who were dear to them in this transitory life — Oh ! ever 
dear and venerated shade of my departed father, look down with scrutiny 
upon the conduct of your suffering son, and see if I have even for a 
moment deviated from those principles of morality and patriotism which 
it was your care to instil into my youthful mind, and for which I am 
now to offer up my life. My lords, you seem impatient for the sacrifice j 
the blood for which you thirst is not congealed by the artificial terrors 
which surround your victim : it circulates warmly and unruffled through 
the channels which God created for nobler purposes, but which you are 
bent to destroy for purposes so grievous, that they cry to Heaven. Be 
ye patient ! I have but a few words more to say. I am going to my 
cold and silent grave ; my lamp of life is nearly extinguished ; my race 
is run; the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom. I 
have but one request to ask at my departure from this world— it is the 
charity of its silence. Let no man write my epitaph, for as no man who 
knows my motives dares now vindicate them, let not prejudice or igno- 
rance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity, and my tomb 
remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to 
my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of 
the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have 
done ! 



SATURDAY NIGHT. 



It is good, when the week is ended, to look back upon its business 
and its toils, and mark wherein we have failed of our duties or come 
short of what we should have done. The close of the week should be 
to each one of us like the close of our lives. Every thing should be 
adjusted, with the world and with our God, as if we were about to leave 
the one and appear before the other. The week is, indeed, one of the 
regular divisions of life, and when it closes it should not be without its 
moral. From the end of one week to the end of another, the mind can 
easily stretch onward to the close of existence. It can sweep down the 
stream of time to the distant period when it will be entirely beyond 
human power to regulate human affairs. Saturday is the time for moral 
reflection. When for the mercies of the week we are thankful, and 
when our past months and years come up in succession before us — we 
see the vanity of our youthful days and the vexations of manhood, and 
tremble at the approaching winter of age. It is then we should with- 
draw from the business and the cares of the world, and give a thought 
to our end, and to what we are to be hereafter. 



320 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE BATTLE OF TRENTON. 

You have heard of General Knox, then Colonel — and of his stento- 
rian voice. I assure you that no justice can be done to him or it; my 
ears rang, for a fortnight after, at the same hour of the night, and do 
yet, when I remember how he galloped about, cursing, swearing, dis- 
mounting ever}' five minutes, and lifting his own artillery, like a giant. 
He was a gallant fellow — full of blood — with all the blunt, strong New 
England hardihood. And Greene himself was there — the only man of 
all our troops capable, I believe, in case of any disaster, to take the 
place of Washington ; there lie sat full of deep religious composure — 
his broad forehead fronting the fires, that were kindled near the place 
of embarkation. 

At last, though not until three o'clock in the morning, we were fairly 
landed upon the Jersey shore, and by five had taken up our line of 
march. 

Our whole army passed softly and silently by, two or three officers, 
posted upon the road-side, continually waving their swords with a mo- 
tion as if to' enjoin the most deathlike stillness; and deathlike it was, 
for nothing could be heard but the blowing of horses, a jolting sound 
now and then in the wet snow where the artillery wagons and gun 
carriages cut through the ground — and a general rush, deep, heavy, as 
water. 

A few moments after, a troop of Virginians under Captain Washing- 
ton, (afterwards so distinguished at the South,) paraded in beautiful 
style through the heavy snow, and brought us intelligence which tended 
to accelerate our march. Before his arrival, we had hoped (as I after- 
wards found) to surprise the enemy at Trenton, while yet overpowered 
by the festivities of the preceding night — and make his morning sleep 
the sleep of death; but now that hope was abandoned, for Captain 
Y\''ashington had encountered his picket, exchanged a few shots, and left 
him prepared for what it is remarkable that he had heard a vague ru- 
mour of — our intended attack. Yet this very affair, which at first 
threatened to be so disastrous, the frolic of Captain Washington, was 
probably the chief reason why we succeeded in surprising the enemy 
at last; for, as that was not followed up, he retired to quarters, after 
waiting a reasonable time, as we afterwards found, thinking the whole a 
Virginia row. 

Our troops were now thrown into two divisions. We were separated 
from our father — who was detailed under Sullivan and St. Clair to take 
the river road — while we, under Washington himself, Greene, Morris, 
and Stevens, pushed onward through what is called the Pennington 
road. 

A few moments afterwards — ^just while I thought my heart had lost 
its motion entirely — for I felt, in looking about me, and seeing the dark 
array of substantial but noiseless creatures, horses and wagons — as if 
the whole army were an apparition — a cavalcade of dead men — march- 



THE BATTLE OF TRENTON. 321 

ing from one place of burial to another. I heard a shot so near me 
that my horse leaped out of my rank. This was followed by a loud cry 
— two or three words — a volley — and then shot after shot, as if a line- 
of sentinels, sleeping upon their posts, had suddenly started up, one 
after the other, fired off their pieces and run in. 

Our advance were well furnished with bayonets — and they immedi- 
ately charged upon the picket, and we dashed after them, trampling 
them to death with our horses, riding over them like a whirlwind, with- 
out speaking a word or firing a shot. This was scarcely done, when we 
heard the firing of the other division, at the opposite quarter — so ad- 
mirably timed had been the arrangement — and we immediately galloped 
into the centre of the town, horse and foot, determined to ride the enemy 
down, or bayonet them, before they had time to form. Washington 
was di'eadfully exposed. The first picket, thinking this a second attack 
of the same little skirmishing party that had fired into them before, 
neglected to give the alarm, — and the outposts, though they fought most 
gallantly, retreating step by step, behind the houses, disputing every 
inch, and presenting their bright bayonets, without a flash of powder, 
wherever we rode in upon them — so that we could not, with all our 
cutting and spurring, force our horses upon them — and then the moment 
we had faced about, blazing away upon us, and running to the next 
house — were driven in. 

At last we had an opportunity for fair play ; the Hessians were formed, 
and forming, with the whole glittering with bayonets. A tremendous 
struggle was going on at our right, under the very eye of Washington, 
with the enemy's artillery, which was taken, when, with a troop of 
horse, Archibald rode down, his cap off, his sword flashing like a fire- 
brand, in the light and smoke of the musketry — " Charge ! charge !" 
he cried — '•' charge ! my brave fellows ! and provoke them to "fire." 
Another troop ! another ! and another ! thundered down, from the right 
and left, but with no effect at all upon the invincible Germans — the 
front rank kneeled all around — while the rest were forming, and pre- 
sented their bayonets, without firing a shot. 

'' By heavens !" said Archibald, shouting as if his heart would break, 
to Captain Washington — "I will try them again \" And, as he said so, 
he rode at full speed, so near that it appeared to me that he could have 
struck the enemy with his sword — and fired his pistol into their faces. 
Our front rank followed the example — and the next moment, all the 
Hessians brought their pieces up to their checks, and poured a tre- 
mendous volley in upon us. I saw my father fall — Arthur reel in his 
stirrups — but Archibald, as if prepared for this very thing, shouted, 
'' Wheel and charge I" 

" Wheel and charge I" repeated a hundred voices in our rear — " wheel 
and charge \" 

We obeyed and the snow flew — and the swords flashed — and the next 
moment, a hundred of the enemy — the whole of his front rank — were 
trampled to death before us, and twenty human heads rolled upon the 
ground, among the feet of our horses. 

The infantry under Grreene poured in volley after volley, at the same 

21 



322 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

time ; and Knox, having brought round his light field-pieces to bear, as 
if they had been blunderbusses, played in upon them an uninterrupted 
roll of thunder and smoke. 

It was impossible to stand it — no human being could have endured 
the hurricane of fire bullets longer. They threw down their arms — and 
then it was — then — when it was necessary to move about the quieter 
operations of strife, that we began to feel the intense coldness of the 
night — the keen air cutting into our new wounds, like rough broken 
glass. 



DE KALB. 



This good man was major-general in the American army during the 
revolutionary war. He was a German by birth, a brave and meritori- 
ous ofiicer. He had attained a high reputation in military service, and 
was a knight of the order of military merit, and a brigadier general in 
the armies of France. He accompanied the Marquis de la Fayette to 
this country, and, having profi"ered his services to Congress, he was ap- 
pointed to the office of major-general. He repaired to the main army, 
in which he served at the head of the Maryland division, very much 
respected. 

Possessing a stout frame, with excellent health, no officer was more 
able to encounter the toils of war. Moderate in mental powers, as in 
literary acquirements, he excelled chiefly in practical knowledge of men 
and things, gained during a life of close and accurate investigation of the 
causes and effects of passing events. 

At the battle of Camden, in South Carolina, the Baron de Kalb com- 
manded the right wing of the American army. At the commencement 
of the action the great body of militia who formed the left wing of the 
army, on being charged with fixed bayonets by the British infantry, 
threw down their arms, and with the utmost precipitation fled from the 
field. In this battle the Americans suffered a severe defeat and loss. 
The continental troops, who formed the right wing of the army, inferior 
as they were in numbers to the British, stood their ground, and main- 
tained the conflict with great resolution. Never did men acquit them- 
selves better. The Americans lost the whole of their artillery, eight 
field-pieces, upwards of two hundred wagons, and the greater part of 
their baggage. The royal army fought with great bravery, but their 
victory was in a great measure owing to their superiority in cavalry, and 
the precipitate retreat of the American militia. 

De Kalb, sustaining by his splendid example the courageous effort of 
our inferior force, in his last resolute attempt to seize victory, received 
eleven wounds, and was made prisoner. His lingering life was rescued 
from immediate death by the brave interposition of Lieutenant-colonel 
de Buysson, one of his aide-de-camps, who embraced the prostrate general 
and received into his own body the bayonets pointed at his friend. 
Chevalier de Buysson rushed through the clashing bayonets, and, stretch- 
ing his arms over the body of the fallen hero, exclaimed, '' Save the 



COLONEL HORRY. 323 

Baron de Kalb ! save the Baron de Kalb !" The British officers inter- 
posed and prevented his immediate destruction ; but he survived the 
action but a few hours. To a British officer, who kindly condoled with 
him in his misfortune, he replied, " I thank you for your generous sym- 
pathy, but I die the death I always prayed for; the death of a soldier 
fighting for the rights of man." 

The heroic veteran, though treated with every attention, survived but 
a few hours. Never were the last moments of a soldier better employed. 
He dictated a letter to General Smallwood, who succeeded to the com- 
mand of his division, breathing in every word his sincere and ardent 
affection for his officers and soldiers, expressing his admiration of their 
late noble, though unsuccessful stand ; reciting the eulogy which their 
bravery had extorted from the enemy ; together with the lively delight 
such testimony of their value had excited in his own mind, then hovering 
on the s-hadowy confines of life. Feeling the pressure of death, he 
stretched out his quivering hand to his friend and aide-de-camp Chevalier 
de Buysson ; proud of his generous wounds, he breathed his last bene- 
dictions on his faithful brave division. 

General Washington, many years after, on a visit to Camden, inquired 
for the grave of Be Kalb. After looking on it a while, with a counte- 
nance marked with thought, he breathed a deep sigh, and exclaimed, 
" So there lies the brave De Kalb ; the generous stranger who came 
from a foreign land to fight our battles, and to water with his blood the 
tree of our liberty. Would to God he had lived to share its fruits !" 

On the 14th of October, 1780, Congress erected a monument to his 
memory, in the town of Annapolis, in the State of Maryland. 



COLONEL HOPtRY. 

A LUDICROUS story is told of Col. Horry, who was once ordered to 
await the approach of a British detachment in ambuscade ; a service he 
performed with such skill, that he had them completely within his 
power, when, from a dreadful impediment in his speech, by which he 
was afflicted, he could not articulate the word '■'■ Fire." In vain he made 
the attempt — it was fi, fi, fi, fi, — but he could get no further. At 

length, irritated to almost madness, he exclaimed, " Shoot, you, — 

shoot — you know very well what I would say — shoot, shoot, and be 

to you !" He was present in every engagement of consequence, 

and on all occasions increased his reputation. At Quinby, Col. Baxter, 
a gallant soldier, possessed of great coolness, and still greater simplicity 
of character, calling out, ''I am wounded, colonel !" Plorry replied, 
'*' Think no more of it, Baxter, but stand to .your post." '■'■ But I can't 
stand, colonel — I am wounded a second time !" '■'■ Then lie down, 
Baxter, but quit not your post." " Colonel," cried the wounded man, 
" they have shot me again, and if I remain any longer here I shall be 
shot to pieces." ''Be it so, Baxter, but stir not." He obeyed the 
order, and actually received the fourth wound before this engage- 
ment ended. 



324 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

THE GENIUS OF COLUMBIA. 

Br DK. 1. W. EAKEK. 

Wandering, in meditative mood, along the solitary banks of a wind- 
ing stream, in the month of December, my attention became arrested 
by the radiance of the moon and spangled firmament, whose clear and 
enchanting lights were unobscured^ save by a few fleecy fragments that 
floated above the southern horizon. I paused — cast my eyes downward, 
and, for a moment, gazed on the countless multitude of heavenly bodies, 
reflected on the surface of the limpid water ; and again, looking aloft, 
thanked my God that I had been born under an American sky — in a 
land of liberty, not less prolific than Egypt's boasted Delta — in a coun- 
try characterized by the excellence of its institutions, and the harmony 
and loyalty of its people. 

Contemplating the majesty of the scenery around me, in connection 
with the probable destiny of our political Union, I found mji-self invo- 
luntarily exclaiming. If there be a spot in the universe where human 
rights are justly appreciated and enjoyed, it is here ! If there be a 
place on earth where the human mind, unfettered by tyrannical institu- 
tions, may rise to the summit of intellectual grandeur, it is here ! If 
there be a country in which the human heart, in public and in private, 
may burst forth in unrestrained adoration to the God that made it, it is 

here ! And proceeding, in a half-audible soliloquy, to enumerate the 

blessings that result from the union of the States, I was suddenly 
startled by a voice from the south, ringing discordantly in the air, and 

sounding the tocsin of rebellion and war ; and lo ! the dark-browed 

tempest was gathering. Instead of the fleecy fragments that lately ho- 
vered over the southern border, impended a dark and stormy cloud, 
apparently surcharged with thunder and electric fire. — Forbid it, Heaven ! 
I exclaimed- "forbid it, at least, until the eyes of the last soldier of 
the Revolution shall have been closed in death ! Let Imn not see the 
political fabric, for which he toiled and bled, crumbling into ruins \" 

Shocked at the aspirations of unholy ambition, and afflicted by this 
additional evidence of the uncertainty of human affairs, I continued to 
gaze, in silent amazement, at the inauspicious signal, till, hearing a 
rustling noise above me, I looked upward, and behold ! an apparition, 
in human form, was descending on one of the fleecy fragments. — Con- 
founded, I thought of Hamlet's ghost, and sprang forward; but in- 
stantly checked by the consciousness of some benign influence, I stood, 
and calmly surveyed the ethereal visitant, as it approached me, with a 
slow and solemn air. The countenance was that of a female, marked 
by dejection, but infinitely surpassing our boldest conceptions of the 
majesty of woman. Her costume was of the richest satin, exquisitely 
adorned with stars and stripes. In her left hand she clasped an olive 
branch, and in her right perched the American eagle, holding in its 
talons a bow and quiver. " I am," said she^ " the Genius of Columbia ! — 



THE TOMB OF A WOMAN. 325 

When Washington, sustained by the statesman and the soldier, suc- 
ceeded in establishing these United States, 'as the land of the free and 
the home of the brave' — a refuge from persecution and tyranny, it was 
hoped they had planted my standard on a permanent basis. But, alas ! 
one of my children, reckless of consequences, threatens to divide, and 
to furnish a precedent for future divisions of the stars and stripes upon 
that banner, which has hitherto waved triumphantly in the field and on 
the mast-top." — For a moment, the crystal tear-drop trickled down 
her fading cheek ; but suddenly rising aloft, as if recalled in haste to 
her native sphere, she exclaimed, " Oh ! that my people would remem- 
ber the salutary motto, 'United we stand ! Divided we fall !' " 

The gloom from the face of the heavens retired; 
The winds ceased to murmur, the thunders expired; 
Perfumes, as of Eden, flow'd sweetly along, 
And a voice, as of angels, exultingly sung, 
C'l-ilumbia ! Cohunhia ! to glory arise, 
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies. 



THE TOjIB of a woman. 

For myself, I can pass by the tomb of a man with somewhat of indif- 
ference ; but when I survey the grave of a female, a sigh involuntarily 
escapes me. With the name of woman I associate every soft, tender, 
and delicate affection. I think of her as the young and bashful virgin, 
with eyes sparkling, and cheeks crimsoned with eiich impassioned feeling 
of her heart ; as the kind affectionate wife, absorbed in the exercises of 
her domestic duties ; as the chaste and virtuous matron, tired of the 
follies of the world, and preparing for that grave into which she must so 
soon descend. Oh ! there is something in contemplating the character 
of a woman that raises the soul far above the vulgar level of society. — 
She is formed to adorn and humanize mankind, to soothe his cares and 
strew his path with flowers. In the hour of distress she is the rock on 
which he leans for support, and when fate calls him from existence, her 
tears bedew his grave. Can I look down upon her tomb without emotion ? 
Man has always justice done to his memory — woman never. The pages 
of history lie open to the one ; but the meek and unobtrusive excellencies 
of the other sleep with her unnoticed in the grave. In her have shone 
the genius of the poet, with the virtue of the saints; the energy of the 
man, with the tender softness of the woman. 



Sleep. — Sleep has often been mentioned as the image of death : "■ So 
like it," says Sir Thomas Brown, " that I dare not trust it without 
prayer." Their resemblance is, indeed, striking and apparent; they 
both when they seize the body leave the soul at liberty ; and wise is he 
that remembers both, and that he can be made safe and happy only by 
a living faith in Jesus Christ. 

2G 



326 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



WASHINGTON LOVED HIS MOTHER 

Immediately after the organization of the present government, Ge- 
neral Washington repaired to Fredericksburg, to pay his humble duty to 
his mother, preparatory to his departure for New York. An affecting 
scene ensued. The son feelingly remarked the ravages which a tortur- 
ing disease had made upon the aged frame of his mother, and thus 
addressed her : 

" The people, madam, have been pleased, with the most flattering 
unanimity, to elect me to the chief magistracy of the United States ; but 
before I can assume the functions of my office, I have come to bid you 
an affectionate farewell. So soon as the public business which must 
necessarily be encountered in arranging a new government, can be dis- 
posed of, I shall hasten to Virginia, and" — 

Here the matron interrupted him : ''You will see me no more; my 
great age, and the disease which is fast approaching my vitals, warn me 
that I shall not be long of this world. I trust in God, I am somewhat 
prepared for a better. But go, George, fulfil the high destinies which 
Heaven appears to have assigned you ; go, my son, and may that Heaven's 
and your mother's blessing be with you always." 

The president was deeply affected. His head rested upon the shoulder 
of his parent, whose aged arm feebly yet fondly encircled his neck. 
That brow on which fame had wreathed the purest laurel virtue ever 
gave to created man, relaxed from its lofty bearing. That look which 
could have awed a Roman senate in its Fabrician day, was bent in filial 
tenderness upon the time-worn features of the venerable matron. 

The great man wept. A thousand recollections crowded upon his 
mind, as memory, retracing scenes long past, carried him back to the 
paternal mansion and the days of his youth, and there the centre of 
attraction was his mother, whose care, instructions, and discipline had 
prepared him to reach the topmost height of laudable ambition ; yet how 
were his glories forgotten while he gazed upon her, from whom, wasted 
by time and malady, he must soon part to meet no more ! 

The matron's predictions were true. The disease which had so long 
preyed upon her frame completed its triumph, and she expired at the 
age of eighty-five years, confiding in the promises of immortality to the 
humble believer. 



A Faithful Soldier. — One day in the middle of winter. General 
Greene, when passing a sentinel who was barefooted, said, " I fear, my 
good fellow, you suffer much from the severe cold." ^'Very much," 
was thei'eply, " but I do not complain ; I know I should fare better, had 
our general the means of getting supplies. They sa}', however, that iu 
a few days we shall have a fight, and then I shall take care to secure a 
pair of shoes." 



SUSPICION. — ^THERE IS A GOD. 327 



SUSPICION. 

I KNOW of no persons more miserable themselves and despised by 
others, than those of a suspicious disposition. They are miserable them- 
selves, as they are ever imagining some designs are plotting against their 
persons, their characters, or their property — the most innocent, nay, the 
best-intended act they pervert into a covert snare to entrap them : they 
see an enemy in every face — a traitor in every friend — a rogue and liar 
in every man they deal with. They act on the principle that every man 
is to be considered dishonest — and that too in every particular transac- 
tion — till at its termination he has proved himself otherwise. How can 
it be that such are not — and justly too — despised by others ? Even the 
suspicious man himself must, and does despise suspicion in others. He 
is willing enough to indulge in it himself, but he can never bear to be 
suspected by others. But he who is free from this suspicious disposi- 
tion ; he who, acting with frankness and candour, expects the same from 
others — who, knowing himself to be honest and sincere, believes that 
others are so too — must secretly despise the man who he finds has re- 
garded him as dishonest, treacherous, and deceitful, in even the minutest 
affairs of life. I know of no excuse for a man of suspicious disposition, 
except that it is an obliquity of mind, arising from constitutional defect, 
or a habit occasioned by a most untoward series of misfortunes, which 
has had the effect to alienate or dry up all the finer feelings of the soul. 



THERE IS A GOD. 



Have you walked abroad into the fields ? Have you surveyed the 
expanse of waters ? Have you examined the earth, its structure, and 
its form — its surface, its mountains and valleys — its springs and its rivers 
— its medicinal waters — its plains, wide and extensive ? Ha ye you 
attentively considered the structure and uses of vegetables and flowers ? 
Have you become familiar with natural history — with the varieties of 
animals, birds, insects, and reptiles ? Have you duly reflected upon the 
uses and phenomena of the atmosphere ? Upon the changes of the 
seasons, and the vicissitudes of day and night ? Have you raised your 
wondering eyes to the heavens — have you considered the magnitude of 
the planets — their distance from us — the velocity and regularity of their 
motions — the awful magnitude of worlds upon worlds — the vastness of 
systems on systems ? Have you done all this ? And do you tell me 
that the result of your investigation is, that there may and may not he a 
God ? No — if you have improved your opportunities, or exercised your 
powers of mind with any degree of faithfulness, the fact that there is a 
God has been riveted in your minds ; and you cannot, if you would, get rid 
of it! If you have thought at all, you havefelfc the conviction, that your 
outgoing and incoming have been beneath the eye of Omnipotence ! 



828 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



FIDELITY. 



4 

Desert not your friend in danger or distress. Too many there are 
in the world whose attachment to those they call friends is confined 
to the day of their prosperity. As long as that continues, they are, or 
appear to be, affectionate and cordial. But as their friend is under a 
cloud, they begin to withdraw and separate their interests from his. In 
friendship of this sort, the heart assuredly has never had much concern. 
For the great test of true friendship is, constancy in the hour of danger — 
adherence in the season of distress. When your friend is calumniated, 
then is the time openly and boldly to espouse his cause. When his situ- 
ation is changed, or misfortunes are fast gathering around him, then is 
the time of affording prompt and zealous aid. When sickness or infirm- 
ity occasions him to be neglected by others, that is the opportunity which 
every real friend will seize of redoubling all the affectionate attention 
which love suggests. These are the important duties, the sacred claims 
of friendship, which religion and virtue enforce on every worthy mind. 
To show yourselves warm in this manner in the cause of your friend, 
commands esteem, even in those who have personal interests in opposing 
him. This honourable zeal of friendship has, in every age, attracted the 
veneration of mankind. It has consecrated to the latest posterity the 
names of those who have given up their fortunes and have exposed their 
lives in behalf of the friends whom they loved ; while ignominy and dis- 
grace have ever been the portion of those who deserted their friends in 
the hour of distress. 



TRUTH IS POWER. 



Some men say that " wealth is power," and some '• that knowledge is 
power ;" above them all, I would assert that " truth is power." Wealth 
cannot purchase — talent cannot refute — knowledge cannot overreach — 
authority cannot silence her; they all, like Felix, tremble at her pre- 
sence. Fling her in the most tremendous billows of popular 'commotion j 
cast her into the sevenfold heated furnace of the tyrant's wrath ; she 
mounts aloft in the ark upon the summit of the deluge; she walks with 
the Son of God untouched through the conflagration. She is the minis- 
tering spirit which sheds on man that bright and indestructible principle 
of life, light, and glory, which is given by his mighty Aiithor to animate, 
to illumine, and to inspire the immortal soul, and which, like himself, " is 
the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." When wealth, and talent, 
and knowledge, and authority — when earth, and heaven itself shall have 
passed away, truth shall rise like the angel of IManoah's sacrifice, upon 
the flame of nature's funeral pyre, and ascend to her source, her heaven 
and her home — the bosom of the holy and eternal God. 



HUMAN LIFE. 329 



HUMAN LIFE. 

Swiftly glide our years — they follow each other like the waves of 
ocean. Memory calls up the persons we once knew, the scenes in which 
we once were actors ; they appear before the mind like the phantoms of 
a night vision. Behold the boy rejoicing in the gayety of his soul — the 
wheels of time cannot roll too rapidly for him — the light of hope dances 
in his eye — the smile of expectation plays upon his lip — he looks for- 
ward to long years of joy to come — his spirit burns within him when he 
hears of great men and mighty deeds — he wants to be a man — he longs 
to mount the hill of ambition, to tread the path of honour, to hear the 
shout of applause. Look at him again — he is now in the meridian of 
life — care has stamped wrinkles upon his brow — disappointment has 
dimmed the lustre of his eye — sorrow has thrown its gloom upon his 
countenance — he looks back upon the waking dreams of his youth, and 
sighs for their futility : each revolving year seems to diminish something 
from his little stock of happiness, and he discovers, that the season of 
youth — when the pulse of anticipation beats high — is the only season of 
enjoyment. Who is he of the aged locks ? His form is bent and totters 
— bis footsteps move more rapidly towards the tomb — he looks back 
upon the past — his days appear to have been few, and he confesses that 
they were evil : the magnificence of the great is to him vanity — the 
hilarity of youth, folly : he considers how soon the gloom of death must 
overshadow the one, and disappointment end the other : the world pre- 
sents little to attract, and nothing to delight him : still, however, he 
would linger in it ; still he would lengthen out his days ; though of 
" beauty's bloom," of " fancy's flash," of " music's breath," he is forced 
to exclaim, "I have no pleasure in them." A few years of infirmity, 
inanity, and pain, must consign him to idiocy or the grave : yet this 
was the gay, the generous, the high-souled boy, who beheld his ascend- 
ing path of life strewed with flowers without a thorn. Such is human 
life ; but such cannot be the ultimate destinies of man. 



AMERICAN LIBERTY, 



Extract from a speech, delivered in the United States Senate, by Mr. 
Grundy, of Tennessee : — 

" If ever the liberties of America are lost, the last great battle will 
be fought upon this floor — in all time to come, here will be found some 
American Catos, who will be ready to say with the good old patriot 
Romans, We will hold it out and fight to the last ; Heaven and earth 
shall witness, if America must fall, that we are innocent. Yes, Mr. 
President, when the goddess of liberty shall find no resting-place in the 
executive mansion — when the spirit of anarchy or despotism shall expel 
her from the other end of this Capitol, she will still linger in and about this 
chamber, unwilling to be gone ; and when compelled to take her final 
flight from our land, the last impress of her feet will be on the top of 
that canopy which overshadows the American Senate." 
2g'2 



330 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

CHRIST ON CALVARY. 

BT THE MILFORD BAUD. 

There stands the messenger of truth ; there stands 

The legate of the skies ! His theme divine,. 

His office sacred, his credentials clear. 

By him the violated law speaks out • i 

Its thunders ; and by him in strains as sweet { 

As angels use, the gospel vchispers peace. 

He 'stablishes the strong, restores the weak, 

Reclaims the wanderer, binds the broken heart. — Cowper. 

I AM invited to record my gpinion of the most illustrious and glorioijs 
character that ever condesceijded to tread the earth — ^^of the most bi'il- 
liant and beautiful doctrine that ever illuminated the mind of man. I 
am solicited to draw the picture of a scene which millions of mankind 
have contemplated with feelings the most tender and terrific — a scene that 
the eternal Founder of the universe could not view unmoved — a scene of 
all others the most touching and irresistibly sublime. That character so 
noble, so magnificent and divine, is no other than the all-glorious and 
sacred Saviour of the world — that doctrine no less than the luminous and 
everlasting oracle of his lips — that scene so touching, so tremendous and 
terrific, and which none may rival but the final dissolution of nature, is 
BO other and no less than the crucifixion of a Grod for the redemption of 
the insignificant, though immortal creature, man. 

I feel the grandeur of my subject j a theme of all others the most 
sublime, the most sympathetic and susceptible of melting the heart of 
man. In contemplating so magnificent a- character, I am at a loss, for 
language sufficiently elevated to do justice to his immortal fame; even 
the pen with which I write, plucked from the wing of the heaven-soaring 
eagle, is inadequate to the task of portraying the attributes of the Saviour 
of mankind. The melting story of our Saviour's sufi'erings, of our 
Redeemer's wrongs in the prelude, and consummation on Calvary, what 
human fancy may delineate, what human language describe ? The bril- 
liant history of that unrivalled character exhibits the deepest traits of 
human nature that are recorded on the pages of fame, or enrolled in the 
archives of ages. Whether we behold him in the temple or tribunal, in 
solitude or society, in pleasure or in pain, he is the same grand and 
glorious character, the same benevolent and blessed being. He was 
emphatically the child of humility. Born in a manger, cradled in 
obscurity, and bred to human industry, he was an example, a striking 
model of retiring modesty. We survey him scorned, scourged, and 
trampled upon, without complaining, and almost without reproof, meek 
as the lamb beneath the knife of the butcher. And yet he was a God, 
the King of kings, whose power was omnipotent, and whose knowledge 
was unbounded ; who could have shaken the throne and darkened the 
destiny of even the tyrant that condemned him. Would that 1 could 
inherit, at this moment, the electric eloquence of a Sunimerfield, the 
unrivalled pencil of a West or a Leonardo di Vinci, that I might do jus- 
tice to the glorious doctrine and picture of human redemption. 



CHRIST ON CALVARY. ooi 

Neither the Talmud nor the Koran, nor any other doctrine ever promul- 
gated by the mouth of man, is so replete in mildness and mercy, so full 
of grandeur and glory, of sublimity and song, as that which our Lord 
and Saviour gave to a dying world. The saint and the savage, the 
philosopher and the fool, alike have felt its influence and testified to the 
superb sentiments and living language, which it contains. Its influence, 
-what telescopic eye can foresee, what human intelligence recapitulate ? 
From that great and gloomy though glorious era, when the Saviour came 
to redeem a fallen world, it has swayed the minds of men, and its influence 
will continue over millions of men unborn. The cold and treacherous 
assassin, as he stole at midnight to the couch of sleeping innocence, hath 
felt its power when the undipped dagger fell from his conscience-stricken 
hand, and the savage tomahawk has found a grave, by the secret and 
mysterious influence of its godlike power. It hath bidden the stream of 
charity to flow from the closed and withered heart of avarice, and it hath 
released the grip of oppression from the pale and piteous form of penury. 
Yea, it hath even softened the adamantine heart of the tyrant, and severed 
the chains which rattled on the arms of the guiltless sons of Africa. The 
pale and pensive suicide hath called upon it for aid, ere he lifted the 
weapon to the tottering throne of reason, nor did he call in vain ; beneath 
the influence of its present balm, and promised bliss, the troubled sea of 
passion subsided, and the wrecks of disappointed hopes broke with the 
next wave, on the shore of oblivion. Who hath not seen the condemned^ 
the outcast of the earth, whose hands were still reeking with the gore 
of his fellow man, chained in the deep dark dungeon ? And who hath 
not seen that dungeon become the happiest home that had ever held that 
wretch, by the influence of the gospel, making his heart a heaven, and 
casting a sunshine even on the hour of dreadful dissolution ? Who then 
but a demon would sigh to see so glorious a gift cut off from the reach 
of man ? Lives there a wretch who would wish to see the splendid sun 
of redemption go down for ever in the eternal night of infidelity ? Ay, 
what uian, even a friend to society, would smile to see the flimsy and 
fanciful philosophy of infidelity triumph over the ruins of the superb 
system of Christianity. Until something more sublime, something more 
consoling and conciliatory, can be substituted in the place of the annihi- 
lating philosophy of infidelity, let the ancient and venerable temple of 
Christianity still tower over the fallen pyramids of pagan superstition, 
the safeguard of morals and the harbinger of hope and happiness here- 
after. I would rather bow at the humble altar of the Christian, than be 
the priest of the rites and ceremonies of the Delphic oracle — I would 
rather trust to the merciful promises of the gospel, than be versed in all 
the splendid and specious philosophy of the French illuminati — I would 
rather wear the crown of the humblest of the martyrs, than that of the 
proudest potentate of earth. Where was the brilliant and fine-spun 
philosophy of Voltaire at the fearful moment of dissolution ? Where 
were the splendid and sophistical reasonings of Mirabeau, Maupertuis, 
and D'Alembert, when the last trump sounded in their dying ears ? 
GonCj like the airy fabric of a noonday dream. As well might such 



S32 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

systems be compared to Christianity as the meteor of the night to the 
brilliant and beautiful luminary of the day. 

Other characters have arisen, flourished, and fallen — other conquerors 
have shaken the world with the tumult of their triumphs, and dazzled 
the imaginations of men with the brilliancy of their achievements, and 
the, rapidity of their career — other patriots have severed the chains and 
dispelled the Grothic darkness of slavery, entered the temple of fame and 
recorded the freedom of a nation ; but none may compare with the rising 
of that illustrious luminary, for he not only shed a light upon succeed- 
ing ages — he not only conquered the hearts and fallen hopes of man — ■ 
he not only carried captive the king of terrors and the sins of the world, 
but he triumphed over the tomb, and achieved a revolution in the very 
nature and nothingness, in the very destiny and dignity of man. The 
splendour of his victories cast a shade upon the exploits of a Scipio and 
Csesar, for without a sword he revolutionized the world, and beheld the 
nations kneeling before him — the thunders of Sinai surpassed the elo- 
quence of a Cicero in its grandeur and power, for it was more irresistible 
than the clash of arms and the tumult of battle, and the manner of his 
warfare reversed the order of revolution, giving new life to the combat- 
ants. And by what means did he achieve so brilliant and beneficial a 
revolution ! Gro muse amid the melancholy and mouldering wrecks of 
Jerusalem, and ask the genius of those solitudes. Go and ascend the 
summit of the far-famed Calvary — go to the sepulchre of the Saviour, 
to the tomb of the triumphant Redeemer, and to the garden where his 
disciples slept under the influence of grief, and methinks an inspiration 
from those scenes will recite the story of his sufferings and sorrows, the 
history of the redemption of man. 

Let us turn for a moment and survey that scene which eventuated 
in the emancipation of a world. Let us contemplate that character of 
all others the most illustrious and divine. We behold the man ! to 
appearance but a man, yet in fact endowed with all the attributes of a 
God. The prophetic tongues of men long mouldered into dust have 
foretold his dawning and his doom, and his own intuitive knowledge, 
his own prophetic soul, is looking forward to that hour which must 
bring the consummation of that grand catastrophe which was destined 
to rescue millions from misery; but he shrank not from the sacrifice 
which was necessary to the consummation. The agonies of the cross 
could not alarm him, neither had the tomb any terror for him, for he 
was confident of the triumph, and that he could descend, without fear, 
to that gloomy repository which covers alike all human hopes and all 
human anticipations. No human animosity or resentment dwelt in his 
heavenly heart; for with kindness and consideration, he designated the 
man who should betray him. Firmness and dignity were characteristic 
of him, who was not ignorant that the most cruel and ignominious of all 
deaths awaited him. Behold him bound and dragged before the high- 
priest. I adjure thee, says Caiaphas, in the name of the living God, to 
tell me whether thou art the Christ or not ? If I tell thee, returned 
the Saviour, thou wilt not believe me; but nevertheless, I say to you, 
hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the 



CHRIST ON CALVARY. 666 

power of Grod, and coming in the clouds of heaven. The priest hearing 
his words, that he was the Son of God, cried out — He hath blasphemed, 
and is worthy of death. Ah ! see how meekly he bears the indignities 
heaped upon him. How melts the heart at the recollection, that he 
who was at that moment preparing to redeem poor fallen man by the 
sacrifice of his own sublime life, was also suifering the scorns, the taunts, 
and buffetings of those same creatures for whom his blood was to be 
shed. The fall of Peter at that period was a conspicuous example of 
the weakness of human nature and the strength of human resolution, for 
he no sooner became conscious of his fall, than he attempted to rise by 
repentance. " 1 hear not the voice of St. Peter lamenting his fall,'" 
says St. Ambrose, " but I see his tears." Blessed tears that can correct 
the heart. 

Let us survey the Saviour before Pilate, whom the crowd is calling 
upon the judge to condemn. Let his blood fall upon us and our chil- 
dren, cried the Jews; and never was an imprecation more faithfully 
fulfilled, more avengingly executed. Pilate, borne down by the torrent 
of his passions, stopped not to listen to the dictates of duty, the plead- 
ings of pity, or the cries of injured innocence. Here is one of those 
strong and touching traits of human nature. Though his heart inclined 
to pity the distressed and succour the innocent, yet the tumult of con- 
tending passions, the love of wealth, of grandeur and power, the fear of 
immolating popularity on the altar of humanity, and the dread of the 
resentment of the mighty Caesar, the autocrat of the earth, opposed the 
pious dictates of his heart, and resisted the philosophy of pity. 

In mournful silence, let us follow the condemned Saviour to the sum- 
mit of Calvary, and witness that spectacle, which struck terror to the 
spectators, and melted even the heart of adamant. Methinks I see him 
with his crown of thorns, and bending beneath the weight of his cross. 
The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, for he is ranked with sinners. Me- 
thinks I see him nailed to the cross. It was the sixth hour of the day, 
and what a dreadful hour ! We are informed, by the incontestable evi- 
dence of sacred writ, that a mournful darkness overspread the face of 
heaven, and shrouded the earth as in mourning. There hung, at that 
tremendous hour, the adorable Mediator between God and man, a spec- 
tacle for men and angels, an example of undying love and mercy. There 
he hung, bleeding and in agony; and though his sufferings were in- 
sulted, he sought no revenge, for his thoughts were the thoughts of 
peace. Father, forgive them, for they Icnow 7wt ivhat they do. How 
tender, how touching were his words ! Covered with wounds, he was, 
emphatically, that man of sorrows and pains that Isaiah had described. 
Ivnowing that all things which had been foretold were fulfilled, that 
all things were accomplished, and that the grand consummation was at 
hand, he said, / thirst ; and having drunk the vinegar, he said. It is 
conaummated. Three hours had this glorious though ghastly spectacle 
continued, and every thing which the prophets had said of the Saviour 
and his sufferings being accomplished, nothing remained but to pay the 
last tribute for the redemption of the world. What an hour was that 
of sublimity and sorrow — what a moment of terror and triumph ! That 



334 MELDS'S SCRAP-EOOK. 

grand type of tlie Saviour, the glorious sun in the heaven, was eclipsed,- 
as though unwilling to illuminate the earth when the greater light of 
the world was darkening in death. A universal gloom, as of midnight 
or the grave, covered the earth until the ninth hour. The globe shook 
as with an earthquake, the eternal rocks cracked and split asunder, and 
the marble jaws of the grave opened and gave up its gloomy dead. 
Methinks I see the terrific scene, and hear the exclamations of the mul- 
titude as they gaze with ghastly countenance upon the veil of the temple 
rent in twain. Jesus Christ, at that moment of agony, cried with a 
loud voice. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Spent with 
suffering, he bowed his head and died. 

What a glorious, yet gloomy moment was that ! The world was 
redeemed ; the accumulated sins of man, which had been darkening his 
destiny from the Eden era to the Christian, were now washed away by 
the blood of him, of whom an elegant writer observes, that with the 
very spear which they crucified him, he crucified the world. The very 
implements of their vengeance became the trophies of his victory. At 
that moment the sting of death was obliterated, and the triumph taken 
from the grave. At that moment the idol tumbled from the pagan 
temple, and the genius of its superstitions vanished for ever. The 
tongues of the heathen oracles, which for ages had held dominion over 
the intellect of man, became silent, and their inspiration was eclipsed in 
the glory of the gospel of God. While the last words yet quivered upon 
the lips of the dying Saviour, the mighty revolution was achieved, the 
law became void, the mysteries and mandates of Moses passed away, 
and the new dispensation commenced. That dispensation, that gospel, 
was not for the few, but the many; not for the virtuous alone, but the 
vicious. The miser bowing before his golden god, the monarch seated 
in grandeur on his glittering throne, and the beggar bending beneath 
his woes, are alike the subjects of its denunciations, alike the objects 
of its offered mercy. 

How great is our necessity to seize with avidity the benefits which have 
resulted from this grand catastrophe and glorious consummation ! We 
are told by that same illustrious character whom we have contemplated, 
that the hour is approaching with incredible velocity, when not only we 
ourselves shall cease to exist, but even the splendid fabric of the universe 
shall pass away. We have his own word, that he will be present at the 
august and terrific scene. That he will come in his chariot of fire on 
the clouds, and sit as a spectator of the grand fabric in flames. If that 
universal alarm were to break forth at this moment in the heavens, what 
a consternation and confusion would it not produce in the concerns and 
pursuits of miserly man ! In the resurrection of the Saviour we see a 
type of that terrific consummation, when every grave shall give up its 
dead, the sea roll forth its millions, and the tombs of oriental genius 
and the sepulchres of ancient saints and sages, priests and prophets, 
teem with life. What a sublime assemblage ! What a magnificent 
multitude ! It is impossible for the finite imagination of man to conceive 
the sublimity of that scene, which Christ has declared shall be exhibited 
to the assembled millions of maftkiQd, The idea of a single planet- 



CHRIST ON CALVARY. doO 

wrapt in flames, is too grand to be admitted into the mind; but to be- 
hold the millions of those vast globes, which make up the universe, on 
fire, to behold them released from the restraint of attraction and gravity, 
and rushing by each other like mighty comets, and bursting with the 
explosion of their materials, is a picture too great for the mind of man 
to conceive, or conceiving to describe. 

Let it be sufficient for us to know, that the gospel has come down to 
us with glad tidings, and that he who rests upon that rock need neither 
fear to look forward to the dissolution of nature, nor the wreck and ruin 
of the universe. That he who builds upon that rock need neither fear 
the gloom of the grave nor the last loud blast which shall announce the 
cessation of the revolution of time. That doctrine upon which we rest 
our hopes is destined to be more lasting than the proud Pyramids of 
Egypt — it has already resisted the test and tooth of time, and stood 
unhurt amid the whirlwinds of passion. While the empires of the earth 
have passed away, and the thrones of despots have crumbled into dust, 
the temple of Christianity hath still stood unhurt by the war of pagan 
superstition, or the incendiary of modern infidelity. Even if it had no 
relation to futurity, and only exerted its influence in the correction of 
society, it were a blessing not to be exchanged for heartless infidelities ; 
it were a blessing the greatest and most glorious ever given to man. 
That it is founded in truth needs no other proof than the destiny and 
present dilapidated state of the Jews. The heart of sensibility bleeds 
for their fate, but it is the eternal fiat of Heaven. That unhappy race 
is now scattered over the earth, a mark is set upon them, they have 
become a by-word, and they are the suspected of all men. But they are 
not forgotten, they are still full of hope and faith, that the Messiah will 
yet make his appearance, and replace them again in the land of beautiful 
Palestine — that he will yet come in majesty and mercy to redeem the 
fallen favourites of Heaven, and to build up the broken-hearted children 
of Israel. 

How astonishing, how startling is the fact, that Christianity should 
have been opposed at the very dawn, when every circumstance was 
fresh in the mind, and by men who had witnessed the very spectacle of 
an expiring God. '' Socrates died like a philosopher," says Rousseau, 
" but Jesus Christ like a God." Alas ! the catacombs of ruined Rome 
still exhibit the relics of the illustrious martyrs, who expired under the 
most excruciating torments, or lingered out a miserable existence in the 
dungeons of superstitious tyranny. Methinks the agonizing groans of 
the persecuted Christians still echo along the mouldering walls of the 
Colosseum, where the unfeeling multitude looked unmoved upon the 
mangled martyr beneath the tooth of the tiger, and the gore as it gushed 
from the heart of the dying gladiator. There thousands of the primitive 
Christians expired sad spectacles of amusement for their pagan persecu- 
tors. But a subject so sublime, a doctrine so divine, could not be obliter- 
ated by the paltry attempts of tyrants, and it has descended the tide of 
time, to us the same brilliant and imperishable gift, as when promulgated 
to the world. The millions of men who will come after us, will see the 
same beauty and beatitude in its promises ; the same grandeur and glory 



336 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

in its doctrine. No second Judas can arise to betray it, tliougli thou- 
sands have attempted it ; no second traitor can triumph over the down- 
fall of his doctrine. It is fixed on the rock of ages. 

But to conclude my lofty theme. Every prophecy in the gospel of 
our God is fulfilling with astonishing rapidity and precision — the gift 
of glad tidings has gone forth to the very depths of our wilderness, and 
the savage sons of the forest, as the consequences, have forgotten their 
ferocious pursuits, aiid are seen bowing the knee to God, and no longer 
paying adoration to the setting sun. The gospel has gone forth to the 
Arab and the Hindoo, and woman is gradually emerging from the long 
night of her slavery, to fill the station to which she is entitled. The 
very destiny of that heathen inheritance has undergone a change, for 
the hunter is seen cultivating the land, and the war-chief making laws 
to govern his civilized posterity. Truly has the desert blossomed like 
the rose. No longer does the benighted mind of the Indian pay his 
devotions to the genius of clouds, or look for the coming of the Great 
Spirit in the storm of night ; but he sees an evidence of the living God 
in all his works, in every leaf and every grain that vegetates on the 
earth. Such were the efiects intended to be produced by that great 
consummation on Calvary. In every lane of life, and in every avocation 
of our concerns, may we not forget, that for us this grand sacrifice was 
made, and that the Saviour rendered up his own life, that we might live 
for ever ! 

This truth how certain, when this life is o'er 
Man dies to live, and lives to die no more. 



SUNSET. 

Who is there who has ever looked up to the " golden gates of the 
resplendent West," and beheld them arrayed in all their magnificence, 
and watched the beautiful departure of the god of day, and has not felt 
himself lifted from earth to Heaven, and his feelings spiritualized by 
the contemplation of the scene ? The glories of sunset can be seen and 
enjoyed in their greatest fulness only in the country. The winds are 
now hushed among the foliage — the birds of heaven have ceased their 
warbling — the voice of the labourer is no longer heard — silence hangs 
like a canopy upon the scene. At such a season, go walk abroad in the 
country — carry along with you no book to aid your reflections — go alone 
or with a friend — let your heart be open to the influence of the scene — 
let its home-felt delights rise up unrepressed — resign yourself freely and 
entirely to the emotions of your own bosom — and if you have not been 
too far corrupted and contaminated by intercourse with the world, you 
will return a better, happier, and a holier man. 



A FALSE friend is like a shadow on a dial ; it appears in clear weather, 
but vanishes as soon as a cloud appears. 



A DIRGE. — ADDRESS TO A HUSBAND. 



337 



A DIRGE. 



BY RET. G. CKOWLT. 



"Earth to earth and dust to dust!" 
Here the evil and the jnst. 
Here the youthful and the old. 
Here the fearful and the bold, 
Here the matron and the maid 
In one silent bed are laid ; 
Here the vassal and the king 
Side by side lie withering ; 
Here the sword and sceptre rust — 
"Earth to earth and dust to dust!" 

Age on age shall roll along 

O'er this pale and mighty throng; 

Those that wept them, those that weep. 

All shall with these sleepers sleep. 

Brothers, sisters of the worm. 

Song of peace or battle's roar 

Ne'er shall break their slumbers more. 

Death shall keep his sullen trust — 

" Earth to earth and dust to dust." 

But a day is coming fast. 
Earth, thy mightiest and thy last ! 
It shall come in fear and wonder. 
Heralded by trump and thunder; 
It shall come in strife and toil. 
It shall come in blood and spoil. 



It shall come in empire's groans. 
Burning temples, trampled thrones : 
Tlien, ambition, rue thy lust ! 
" Earth to earth and dust to dust !" 

Then shall come the judgment sign ; 
In the east the King shall shine; 
Flashing from Heaven's golden gate. 
Thousands, thousands round his state, 
Spirits with the crown and plume ; 
Tremble then, thou sullen tomb ! 
Heaven shall open on our sight. 
Earth be turn'd to living light. 
Kingdom of the ransom'd just— 
" Earth to earth and dust to dust !" 

Then thy mount, Jerusalem, 
Shall be gorgeous as a gem ! 
Then shall iu the desert rise 
Frxiits of more than Paradise ; 
Earth by angel feet be trod. 
One great garden of her God ! 
Till are dried the martyr's tears 
Through a thousand glorious years ! 
Now in hopes of Him we trust, 
" Earth to earth and dust to dust !" 



DOCTOR SPURZHEIM. 

The following ode, written by Mr. Pierpont, was sung by the Handel and Hayden Society with great effect 
at the funeral of Dr. Spurzheim. 



Stranger, there is bending o'er thee 

Slany an eye with sorrow wet; 
All our stricken hearts deplore thee; 

Who that knew thee can forget ? 
■Who forget what thou hast spoken ? 

Who, thine eye — thy noble frame ? 
But that golden bowl. is broken. 

In the greatness of thy fame. 

Autumn's leaves shall fall and wither 

On the spot where thou shalt rest; 
'Tis in love we bear thee thither. 

To thy mourning mother's breast. 
For the stores of science brought us. 

For the charms thy goodness gave. 
For the lessons thou hast taught us, 

Can we give thee but a grave ? 



Nature's priest, how pure and fervent 

Was thy worship at her shrine ! 
Friend of man, of God the servant. 

Advocate of truths divine — 
Taught and charm'd as by no other 

We have been and hope to be ; 
But, while waiting round thee, brother, 

For thy light— 'tis dark with thee. 

Dark with thee ! — no ; thy Creator, 

All whose creatures and whose laws 
Thou didst love, shall give thee greater 

Light than earth's, as earth withdraws. 
To thy God thy god-like spirit 

Back we give, in filial trust ; 
Thy cold clay — we grieve to bear it 

To its chamber ; but we must. 



ADDRESS TO A HUSBAND. 



BY MISS PORTER, 
Oh ! grant my prayer and let me go. 

Thy toils to share, thy path to smooth; 
Is there a want, a wish, a wo. 

Which wedded love can fail to soothe ? 



At morn, when sleep still seals thine eyes, 
Jly hand thy temperate meal shall spread ; 

2D 



At night my smiles shall check thy sighs. 
And my fond arms support thy head. 

And if thy vexing cares should dart 
Some hasty word, my zeal to chill. 

Still this unchanging, tender heart, 
The saored vow I made shall fill. 



22 



338 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



MATERNAL INFLUENCE. 

The mental fountain is unsealed to the eye of a mother ere it has 
chosen a channel or breathed a murmur. She may tinge with sweet- 
ness or bitterness the whole stream of future life. Others have to con- 
tend with unhappy combinations of ideas. Of her, we may say, she 
hath entered into the magazine of snow, and seen the treasures of the 
hail. In the moral field, she is a privileged labourer. Ere the dews of 
morning begin to exhale, she is there. She breaks up a soil which the 
root of error and the thorns of prejudice have not pre-oecupied. She 
plants germs whose fruit is for eternity. While she feels that she is 
required to educate not merely a virtuous member of society, but a 
Christian, an angel, a servant of the Most High, how does so holy a 
charge quicken piety, by teaching the heart its own insufficiency ! 

The soul of her infant is uncovered before her. She knows that the 
images which she enshrines in that unoccupied sanctuary, must rise be- 
fore her at the bar of mercy. Trembling at such tremendous responsi- 
bility, she teaches the little being, whose life is her dearest care, of the 
Grod who made him; and who can measure the extent of a mother's 
lessons of piety, unless his hand might remove the veil which divides 
terrestrial things ? 

" When I was a little child," said a good man, "my mother used to 
bid me kneel beside her, and placed her hand upon my head while she 
prayed. Ere I was old enough to know her worth, she died, and I was 
left much to my own guidance. Like others, I was inclined to evil 
passions, but often felt myself checked, and, as it were, drawn back by 
the soft hand upon my head. When I was a young man, I travelled in 
foreign lands, and was exposed to many temptations. But when I would 
have yielded, that same hand loas ti^oon my head, and I was saved. I 
seemed to feel its pressure as in days of my happy infancy, and some- 
times there came with it a voice in my heart, a voice that must be obey- 
ed : 'Oh! do not this wickedness, my son, nor sin against thy God.'" 



Ostentatious Epitaphs. — Charpentier has the following eloquent 
passage. " Whenever," says he, " I cast my eyes on ostentatious epi- 
taphs, I feel a wish to write under them, ' As man is composed of pride 
and infirmities, passenger, you here behold them fully exemplified. 
This tomb indicates the feebleness, and this epitaph the pride of his 
nature.' How just a picture is this of the character of the deceased 
person when alive ! Under robes of silk and embroidery he concealed 
from the eyes of the world the weakness and diseases of his decaying 
body. A wounded conscience, a feeble understanding, and eternal toil 
of solicitude and sorrows, were hidden beneath the mask of a tranquil 
countenance, a steady and penetrating eye." 



COMMODORE DECATUR. 339 



COMMODOEE DECATUR. 

Stephen Decatur, a celebrated American naval officer, was born 
January 5, 1779, on the eastern shore of Maryland, wbitherhis parents 
had retired while the British were in Philadelphia. He entered the 
American navy in March, 1798, and was soon promoted to the rank of 
first lieutenant. While at Syracuse, attached to the squadron of Com- 
modore Preble, he was first informed of the American frigate Philadel- 
phia, which, in pursuing a Tripolitan corsair, ran on a rock about four 
and a half miles from Tripoli, and was taken by the Tripolitans, and 
towed into the harbour. Lieut. Decatur conceived the project of attempt- 
ing her recapture or destruction. He selected, for this purpose, a ketch, 
and manned her with seventy volunteers. February 16, 1804, at seven 
o'clock at night he entered the harbour of Tripoli, boarded the frigate, 
though she had all her guns mounted and charged, and was lying within 
half-gun shot of the bashaw's castle and of his principal battery. Two 
Tripolitan cruisers were lying within two cables' length on the starboard 
quarter, and several gunboats within half gun-shot on the starboard 
bow, and all the batteries on shore were opened upon the assailants. 
Decatur set fire to the frigate and continued alongside until her destruc- 
tion was certain. For this exploit, the American Congress voted him 
thanks and a sword, and the president immediately sent him a captaincy. 
The next spring it being resolved to make an attack on Tripoli, Commo- 
dore Preble equipped six gunboats and two bombards, formed them into 
two divisions, and gave the command of one of them to Captain Decatur. 
The enemy's gunboats were moored along the mouth of the harbor, 
under the batteries and within musket-shot. Captain Decatur deter- 
mined to board the enemy's eastern division, consisting of nine. He 
boarded in his own boat, and carried two of the enemy's boats in suc- 
cession. When he boarded the second boat, he immediately attacked 
the commander, who was his superior in size and strength, and, his 
sword being broken, he seized the Turk, when a violent scuffle ensued. 
The Turk threw him, and drew a dirk for the purpose of stabbing him, 
when Decatur, having a small pistol in his right pocket, took hold of it, 
and turned it as well as he could, so as to take eft'ect upon his antago- 
nist, cocked it, fired through his pocket, and killed him. When Com- 
modore Preble was superseded in the command of the squadron, he gave 
the frigate Constitution to Decatur, who was afterwards removed to the 
Congress ; and returned home in her when peace was concluded with 
Tripoli. He succeeded Commodore Barron in the command of the 
Chesapeake, after the attack made upon her by the British man-of-war 
Leopard. He was afterwards transferred to the frigate United States. In 
the war between Great Britain and the United States, while commanding 
the frigate United States, he fell in (Oct. 25, 1812) with the Macedonian, 
mounting forty-nine carriage guns, one of the finest of the British vessels 
of her class, and captured her after an engagement of an hour and a 
half. When Captain Garden, the commander of the Macedonian, ten- 



340 piELDs's scrap-booe:. 

dered him his sword, he observed that he could not think of taking the 
sword of an officer who had defended his ship so gallantly, but should 
be happy to take him by the hand. In a letter written five days after 
the capture, he says, '' I need not tell you that I have done every thing 
in my power to soothe and console Captain Garden ; for really, one-half 
the pleasure of this little victory is destroyed in witnessing the mortifi- 
cation of a brave man, who deserved success quite as much as we did 
who obtained it." In January, 1814, Commodore Decatur, in the 
United States, with his prize the Macedonian, then equipped as an 
American frigate, was blockaded at New London by a British squadron 
ereatly superior in force. A challenge which he sent to the commander 
of the British squadron, Sir Thomas Hardy, offering to meet two of the 
British frigates with his two ships was declined. In January, 1815, he 
attempted to set sail from New York, which was blockaded by four 
British ships, but the frigate under his command, the President, was 
injured in passing the bar, and was captured by the whole squadron, after 
having maintained a running fight of two hours and a half with one of 
the frigates, Endymion, which was dismantled and silenced. 

After the conclusion of peace, he was restored to his country in 1815. 
The conduct of the Barbary powers, and of Algiers in particular, having 
been insulting to the United States, on the ratification of peace with 
Great Britain, war was declared against Algiers, and a squadron was fitted 
out, under the command of Commodore Decatur, for the purpose of ob- 
taining redress. In the spring of 1815 he set sail, and June 17, ofi" Cape 
De Gatt, captured an Algerine frigate, after a running fight of twenty- 
five minutes, in which the famous admiral Kais Hammida, who had long 
been the terror of the Mediterranean sea, fell. The American squadron 
arrived at Algiers, June 28. In less than forty-eight hours, Decatur ter- 
rified the regency into his own terms, which were, mainly, that no tribute 
should ever be required by Algiers from the United States of America ; 
that all Americans in slavery should be given up without ransom ; that 
compensation should be made for American property seized; that all 
citizens of the United States, taken in war, should be treated as prisoners 
of war are by other nations, and not as slaves, but held subject to an 
eschange without ransom. After concluding this treaty, he proceeded 
to Tunis, where he obtained indemnity for the outrages exercised or per- 
mitted by the bashaw. Thence he went to Tripoli, where he made a 
similar demand with like success, and procured the release of ten cap- 
tives, Danes and Neapolitans. He arrived in the United States, Novem- 
ber 12, 1815, was subsequently appointed one of the board of navy 
commissioners, and was residing at Washington in that capacity, when 
he was killed in a duel with Commodore Barron, March 22, 1820, occa- 
sioned by his animadversions on the conduct of the latter. Courage, 
sagacity, energy, self-possession, and a high sense of honour, were the 
characteristic traits of Decatur. From his boyhood he was remarkable 
for qualities which presage eminence in naval warfare. He enjoyed the 
sea as his element. He possessed an active, muscular frame, a quick, 
penetrating eye, and a bold, adventurous, and ambitious spirit. 



REVOLUTIONARY REMINISCENCE. 341 



REVOLUTIONARY REMINISCENCE. 

In the early part of the revolutionary war, a sergeant and twelve 
armed men undertook a journey through the wilderness in the State of 
New Hampshire. Their route was remote from any settlements, and they 
were under the necessity of encamping over night in the woods. In the 
early part of our struggle for independence, the Indians were numerous, 
and did not stand idle spectators to a conflict carried on with so much 
zeal and ardour by the whites. Some tribes were friendly to our cause, 
while many upon our border took part with the enemy, and were very 
troublesome in their savage kind of warfare, as our countrymen often 
learned from the woful experience of their midnight depredations. The 
leader of the above-mentioned party was well acquainted with different 
tribes ; and from much intercourse with them previous to the wax-, was 
not ignorant of the idiom, physiognomy, and dress of each, and at the 
commencement of hostilities was informed for which party they had 
raised the hatchet. 

Nothing material happened the first day of their excursion ; but early 
in the afternoon of the second, they, from an eminence, discovered a 
body of armed Indians advancing towards them, whose number rather 
exceeded their own. As soon as the whites were perceived by their red 
brethren, the latter made signals, and the two parties approached each 
other in an amicable manner. The Indians appeared to be much grati- 
fied with meeting the sergeant and his men, whom they observed they 
considered as their protectors; said they Ijelonged to a tribe which had 
raised the hatchet with zeal in the cause of liberty, and were determined 
to do all in their power to injure the common enemy. They shook hands 
in friendship, and it was, ''How d'ye do, pro? how d'ye do, pro?" that 
being their pronunciation of the word brother. When they had con- 
versed with each other for some time and exchanged mutual good wishes 
they at length separated., and each party travelled in different directions. 
After proceeding to the distance of a mile or more, the sergeant halted 
his men and addressed them in the following words : " My brave com- 
panions, we must use the utmost caution, or this night may be our last. 
Should we not make some extraordinary exertions to defend ourselves, 
to-morrow's sun may find us sleeping never to wake. You are surprised, 
comrades, at my words ; and your anxiety will not be lessened when I 
inform you that we have just passed our most inveterate foe, who, under 
the mask of pretended friendship you have witnessed, would lull us into 
security, and by such means, in the unguarded moments of our midnight 
slumber, without resistance, seal our fate." 

The men with astonishment listened to this short harangue ; and their 
surprise was greater, as not one of them had entertained the suspicion 
but they had just encountered friends. They all immediately resolved 
to enter into some scheme for their mutual preservation and the destruc- 
tion of their enemies. By the proposal of their leader, the following 
plan was adopted and executed. 
2d2 



342 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

The spot selected for their night's encampment was near a stream of 
water, which served to cover their rear. They felled a large tree, before 
which, on the approach of night, a brilliant fire was lighted. Each indi- 
vidual cut a log of wood about the size of his body, rolled it nicely in his 
blanket, placed his hat upon the extremity, and laid it before the fire, 
that the enemy might be deceived, and mistake it for a man. After 
logs equal in number to the sergeant's party were thus fitted out, and so 
artfully arranged that they might easily be mistaken for so many sol- 
diers, the men with loaded muskets placed themselves behind the fallen 
tree, by which time the shades of the evening began to close around. 
The fire was supplied with fuel, and kept burning brilliantly until late in 
the evening, when it was suffered to decline. The critical time was 
now approaching, when an attack might be expected from the Indians ; 
but the sergeant's men rested in their places of concealment with great 
anxiety till near midnight, without perceiving any movement of the 
enemy. 

At length a tall Indian was discovered, through the glimmering of the 
fire, (which was now getting low,) cautiously moving towards them, 
making no noise, and apparently using every means in his power to con- 
ceal himself from any one about the camp. For a time, his actions 
showed him to be suspicious that a guard might be stationed to watch 
any unusual appearance, who would give the alarm in case of danger ; 
but all appearing quiet, he ventured forward more boldly, rested upon 
his toes, and was distinctly seen to move his finger as he numbered each 
log of wood, or what he supposed to be a human being quietly enjoying 
repose. To satisfy himself more fully as to the number, he counted them 
over a second time and cautiously retired. He was succeeded by another 
Indian, who went through the same movements and retired in the same 
manner. Soon after the whole party, sixteen in number, were disco- 
vered, cautiously approaching and greedily eying their supposed victims. 
The feelings of the sergeant's men can better be imagined than de- 
scribed, when they saw the base and cruel purposes of their enemies, 
who were now so near that they could scarcely be restrained from firing 
upon them. The plan, however, of the sergeant was, to have his men 
remain silent in their places of concealment till the muskets of the 
savages were discharged, that their own fire might be more effectual and 
opposition less formidable. 

The suspense was not of long duration. The Indians, in a body, cau- 
tiously approached, till within a short distance ; they then halted, took 
deliberate aim, discharged their pieces upon inanimate logs, gave the 
dreadful war-whoop and instantly rushed forward with tomahawk and 
scalping-knife in hand to despatch the living and obtain the scalps of the 
dead. As soon as they had collected in close order, more effectually to 
execute these horrid intentions, the party of the sergeant, with unerring 
aim, discharged their pieces, not on logs of wood, but on perfidious 
savages, not one of whom escaped destruction by the snare into which 
their cowardly and bloodthirsty dispositions had led them. 



THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. Mi 



THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 

One of the most special appointments of the Creator, as to birds, and 
which nothing but his chosen design and corresponding ordainment can 
explain, is the law, that so many kinds shall migrate from one country 
to another, and most commonly at vast distances from each other. They 
might have been all framed to breed, be born, live, and die in the same 
region, as occurs to some, and as quadrupeds and insects do. But he 
has chosen to make them travel from one climate to another, with uner- 
ring precision, from an irresistible instinct, with a wonderful courage, 
with an untiring mobility, and in a right and never-failing direction. 
For this purpose, they cross oceans without fear, and with a persevering 
esertion that makes our most exhausting labours a comparative amuse- 
iTient. Philosophy in vain endeavours to account for the extraordinary 
phenomenon. It cannot discover any adequate physical reason. Warmer 
temperatures are not essentially necessary to incubation, nor always the 
object of the emigration; for the snow-bunting, though a bird of song, 
goes into the frozen zone to breed and nurture its young. The snow-bird 
has the same taste or constitution for the chilling weather which the 
majority recede from. We can only resolve all these astonishing jour- 
neys into the appointment of the Creator, who has assigned to every bird 
the habits as well as the form, which it was his good pleasure to ima- 
gine and to attach to it. The watchful naturalist may hear, if not see 
several migrations of those whiqh frequent our island, both to and fro, 
as spring advances, and as autumn declines; but as they take place chiefly 
at night or at early dawn, and in the higher regions of the atmosphere, 
they are much oftener audible than visible to us on the surface of the 
earth. — Turner's Sacred History. 



THE BIBLE. 



The Bible is a history of Him who groaned on Calvary. From that 
sacred summit a flood of light broke forth upon the world. It was the 
dawn of redemption ! Superstition fled aff"righted before the glorious 
appearance of Christianity, and the church of the living Grod arose on 
the ruins of the heathen altar. The automatons of pagan idolatry 
tumbled to the dust, and the false deities perished on Olympus. That 
glorious gosjiel which efi'ected this great work is contained within the 
Bible. Like the rainbow which is hung out in the heavens, it was sent 
as a token that Grod would be mindful of us. Glorious token ! I rejoice 
when I read it, and I would recommend it to all my fellow-travellers to 
the grave. The waves of time are rolling on to sweep us away, and as 
we pass through the dark vale of death, the light of Calvary will illu- 
minate our path to the superb palaces of God. Darkness and death are 
horrific to the lonely mind, but the Bible will overcome those terrors, 
and infuse a calm serenity in the darkest hour of existence. 



344 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 

The following extract, giving a description of the crossing of the 
Delaware, by Washington and his troops, is taken from an address 
delivered in New York, on the hundredth anniversary of Washington's 
birth-day, by Eli Moore, Esq : — 

In no one instance, perhaps, was Washington's influence with the 
army so strikingly exemplified as in his attack on the enemy at Trenton. 
Over and over have I listened with intense anxiety, in the days of my 
boyhood, while my now departed sire, who fought and bled on that 
proud field, recited with thrilling interest all that related to the enter- 
prise. It was on a December night, (would he say,) when our little 
heart-broken army halted on the banks of the Delaware. That night 
was dark — cheerless — tempestuous — and bore a strong resemblance to 
our country's fortunes! It seemed as if heaven and earth conspired 
for our destruction. The clouds lowered — darkness and the storm came 
apace. The snow and the hail descended, beating with unmitigated 
violence upon the supperless, half-clad, shivering soldier; and in the 
roaring of the flood and the wailings of the storm, was heard, by fancy's 
ear, the knell of our hopes and the dirge of liberty ! The impetuous 
river was filled with floating ice : an attempt to cross it at that time, and 
under such circumstances, seemed a desperate enterprise— yet it was 
undertaken, and thanks be to God and Washington, was successfully 
accomplished. 

From where we landed, on the Jersey shore, to Trenton, was about 
nine miles, and on the whole line of march there was scarcely a word 
uttered, save by the officers when giving some order. We were well- 
nigh exhausted (said he) — many of us frost-bitten — and the majority of 
us so badly shod the blood gushed from our frozen and lacerated feet at 
every tread — yet we upbraided not, complained not — but marched steadily 
and firmly, though mournfully, onward, resolved to persevere to the utter- 
most — not for our country — our country, alas ! we had given up for 
lost. Not for ourselves — life for us no longer wore a charm ; but because 
such was the loill of our beloved chief — 'twas for Washington alone 
we were willing to make the sacrifice. When we arrived within sight 
of the enemy's encampments, we were ordered to form a line, when 
Washington reviewed us. Pale and emaciated — dispirited and exhausted 
— we presented a most unwarlike and melancholy aspect. The paternal 
eye of our chief was quick to discover the extent of our sufli"erings, and 
acknowledge them with his tears ; but suddenly checking his emotions, 
he reminded us that our country and all that we held dear were staked 
upon the coming battle. As he spoke we began to gather ourselves up 
and rally our energies ; every man grasped his arms more firmly ; and 
the clenched hand, and the compressed lip, and the steadfast look, 
and the knit brow, told the soul's resolve. Washington observed us 
well ; then did he exhort us, with all the fervour of his soul, ''on yonder 
field to conquer, or die the death of the brave." 



CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 345 

At that instant the glorious sun, as if in prophetic token of our suc- 
cess, burst forth in all its splendour, bathing in liquid light the blue hills 
of Jersey. The faces which but a few moments before were blanched 
with despair, glowed with martial fire and animation. Our chief with 
exultation hailed the scene ; then casting his doubts to the winds, and 
calling on the God of battle and his faithful soldiers, led on the 
charge. The conflict was fierce and bloody. For more than twenty 
minutes not a gun was fired ; the sabre and the bayonet did the work 
of destruction ; it was a hurricane of fire, and steel, and death. There 
did we stand, (would he say,) there did we stand, "foot to foot, and hilt 
to hilt," with the serried foe ! and where we stood we died or con- 
quered. Such was that terrific scene. 

The result of that action, gentlemen, is known to you all — as are also 
its bearings upon the fortunes of America. Had defeat attended our 
arms at this trying crisis, our cause was lost — for ever lost — and freedom 
had found a grave on the plains of Trenton ! But the wisdom and 
prudence of Washington secured us the victory — and consequently our 
liberty. 

How great our obligation then, and how much it behoves us at this^ 
time to show our gratitude by erecting to his memory a monument, 
that shall tell to after-ages, not only that Washington was great, but 
that toe were grateful ! Let it no longer be delayed ! To pause is to 
invite defeat — to persevere, to insure success. 



The following beautiful extract is from Biddle's eulogium on Jefferson : 
There lies in the depths of every heart, that dream of our youth, and 
the chastened wish of manhood, which neither cares nor honours can ever 
extinguish, the hope of one day resting from the pursuits which absorb 
us ; of interposing between our old age and the tomb some tranquil 
interval of reflection, when, with feelings not subdued but softened, with 
passions not exhausted but mellowed, we may look calmly on the past 
without regret, and on the future without apprehension. But in the 
tumult of the world, this vision forever recedes as we approach it; the 
passions which have agitated our life disturb our latest hour ; and we 
go down to the tomb, like the sun into the ocean, with no gentle and 
gradual withdrawing of the light of life back to the source which gave 
it, but, sullen in its beamless descent, with all its fiery glow, long after 
it has lost its power and its splendour. 



Fortitude is one of the noblest virtues appertaining to the human 
character, and stamps upon those who possess it an unfading lustre, 
which does honour to the name of man. He who labors under the lash 
of adversity, and bears up against his misfortunes with a pious resigna- 
tion, must be pleasing to the Supreme Being, while his conduct is uni- 
versally admired by his fellow-creatures. 



846 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE SOLDIER'S FUNERAL. 

The day was calm and clear — not a cloud appeared in any part of the 
heavens, and the flag hung motionless over the walls. Grroups of sol- 
diers were gathered on the ramparts, whispering among themselves — - 
none dared to speak above his breath — even the sergeant, when uttering 
his orders, seemed to lay aside half his authority. Soon the muffled 
roll of a drum was heard — silent and dejected, wj.th their eyes fixed on 
the ground, a party marched past me — another company appeared — ■ 
their muskets, the muzzles being pointed downwards, were crossed upon 
their backs. The coffin, plain, and covered with a large black pall, was 
carried along by tlie immediate comrades of the deceased ; on it there 
was thrown part of his accoutrements — then came another party equally 
pale and dejected. I mingled with the procession, and accompanied it 
to the grave. Slowly was the black pall removed, and the coffin was 
lowered into the earth. A part of the troops removed to a little dis- 
tance, but the remainder epcircled the grave. The word of command 
was given, and the discharge of musketry announced, to those within 
hearing, that a soldier's remains had now been deposited in the cold 
tomb — the firing of three several rounds convinced me that the warrior 
had died as a soldier ought to die — full of honour, though not on the 
field of battle. Then the sexton approached, and as the mould sounded 
on the hollow coffin, the noise, though less loud, sank deeper into the 
hearts of the audience; all seemed to shrink away from the unearthly 
murmur. " 

The deceased had been a favourite in the regiment, and every one 
was ready to sound his praises — his warm and affectionate heart, his 
mild and endearing manners, were greatly spoken of. Yet, though calm 
and serene in the barracks, he was ardent and enthusiastic in the field ; 
his bravery had particularly attracted the notice of his officers, and they, 
even as his comrades, felt as if deprived of a brother. The soldiers 
retired ; and, as I saw them walk mournfully away, casting back many 
a lingering look on the newly heaped-up mound, I asked myself if such 
were the heroes who had carried the fame of the American arms to the 
farthest bounds of the earth ; if men, who could not witness, without 
the deepest emotion, the burial of a comrade, could ever have rushed to 
the charge. I knew that they had ; and even at a moment of this kind, 
which generally brings humility along with it, I was proud of my coun- 
trymen, I rejoiced to see that those who could fight ardently could also 
grieve bitterly. But such have always been the feelings and sentiments 
of an American soldier. 



All the teeth of a certain scolding lady being loose, she asked a phy- 
sician the cause of it, who answered that it proceeded from the violent 
shocks she gave them with her tongue. 



THE MAJESTY OF GOD. 347 



THE MAJESTY OF GOD. 

Nothing is more difficult than to endeavour to lorm such ideas of 
God as are in any degree worthy of his greatness and majesty. It is 
as impossible for us to comprehend him perfectly, as it would be to hold 
the sea in the hollow of our hand, and compass the heavens with a span. 
Of God it may be justly said, he is both well known to and concealed 
from us. He is very n.igh and yet infinitely beyond us — well known 
and very nigh in respect to his being, and infinitely distant and hidden 
in respect to his nature, perfections, and purposes. But on this very 
account it is our duty to endeavour to know his greatness, as it is neces- 
sary that we should form those sentiments of veneration, for they are 
his due. To assist our weakness in this respect, let us compare him 
with what men esteem and admire most, and we shall see that God is 
infinitely above all. 

We admire the power of kings, and we are filled with astonishment 
when we find they have conquered vast empires, taken cities and for- 
tresses, erected superb buildings, and have been the means of the happi- 
ness or misery of whole nations. But if we are struck with the powers 
of a man, who is but dust and ashes, the greater part of whose exploits 
is due to other agents, how shall we admire the power of God, who has 
founded the earth and formed the heavens, who holds the sun in his 
hand, and upholds the immense fabric of the universe by the word of 
his power. We are, with reason, astonished at the heat of the sun, the 
impetuosity of the winds, the roaring of the sea, the peals of thunder, 
and the inconceivable rapidity of the lightning; but it is God who lights 
up the solar fire, who thunders in the clouds, makes the winds his mes- 
sengers, the flames of fire his ministers, and who raises and calms the 
waves of the sea. 

We justly respect those who have distinguished themselves by the 
extent of their knowledge ; but what is the knowledge that the whole 
human understanding can acquire, in comparison to the wisdom of that 
august Being before whom all is uncovered and all known — who county 
the stars of heaven and numbers the sands of the sea — knows the path 
of every drop that falls from the atmosphere — and who, with one look, 
beholds the past, the present, and the future, in the present moment. 
How much wisdom shines in the construction of the universe, in the 
revolutions of the planets, in the arrangement of our globe, and in the 
smallest flower ! They are so many masterpieces, which infinitely sur- 
pass the most magnificent and most perfect work of man. 

We are dazzled with the splendour of riches, we admire the palaces 
of kings, the magnificence of their furniture, the pomp of their clothing, 
the beauty of their apartments, and the abundance of gold, silver, the 
precious stones, which lie on every side ; but how little is all this 
compared with the riches of the Lord our God, whose throne is in the 
heavens, and whose footstool is the earth ! The heavens are his, and 
the earth also; the habitable world and all that dwell therein. He has 



348 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

fitted up dwellings for all creatures, he has established stores for all men 
and all animals, he causes grass to grow for cattle and corn for the ser- 
vice of man. All that is useful and excellent in the world is drawn 
from his treasures. Life, health, riches, glory, happiness, every thing 
that can constitute the good of his creatures, all are in his hands, and 
he distributes them according to his good pleasure. 

We respect the great men of the earth when they command a multi- 
tude of subjects, and reign over many countries; but what is that spot 
which is subject to them, in comparison with ihe empire of the universe, 
of which our globe is but a small province, which extends over all the 
heavenly bodies and their inhabitants ! How great must that Master be 
who has all monarchs of the universe for his servants, and who beholds 
around his throne the cherubim and seraphim ever ready to fly to execute 
his orders! 

We judge of the greatness of men by their actions. We celebrate 
kings who have built cities and palaces, who have governed their estates 
well, and who have successfully accomplished great designs. But how 
astonishing are the works of the Most High ! How wonderful the crea- 
tion of the immense universe, the preservation of so many creatures, the 
wise and beautiful government of innumerable worlds, the redemption 
of the human race, the punishment of the wicked^ and the recompense 
of the good ! 

Who is like unto thee, Lord ! Thou art great, thy name is great, 
and thy works proclaim thy grandeur ! Nothing can be imagined equal 
to the greatness of our God. Should not a religious reverence ever pos- 
sess our souls at the thought of the presence of the Ruler of the world, 
the Lord, who encompasses all our paths ! The brightness of the stars 
is absorbed by the presence of the sun. Thus all the glory, all the know- 
ledge, all the power and all the riches of the world vanish when com- 
pared with the glory and majesty of God. The soul exults and is 
ennobled in meditating on the greatness of the Most High. Such sublime 
meditations delightfully exercise all our spiritual faculties — we are filled 
with reverence, admiration, and joy, when, in a holy transport, we repre- 
sent to our mind the Being of beings, the Eternal, Almighty, the Lifi- 
nite ! Can we help exclaiming with ecstasy. The Lord he is God ! The 
Lord he is God ! Give glory to him for ever and ever ! 



Judge Parsons. — The following anecdote, illustrative of the character 
of the late Judge Parsons, is, both in thought and language, s-ublime. 
A gentleman named Time had been concerned in a duel ; the ball of 
his antagonist struck his watch, and remained there. It thus saved his 
life. The watch was afterwards exhibited, with the ball remaining in it, 
in a company where Judge Parsons was present. It was observed by 
several, that it was a valuable watch. " Yes," said Parsons, " very ex- 
cellent; it has kejJtTniEfroin 'Eternity." 



THE DAT OF JUDaMENT. — THE GREAT Dx\Y. 



349 



THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. 



Wake, heavenly muse, attune thy noblest lay, 
And sing the glorious, long-predicted day. 
When, rohed in majesty, our God shall come, 
Throned on a cloud, to call his children home. 

The time shall eome, when numerous years are o'ei", 
The eternal day shall dawn, to close no more ; 
O glorious day ! O morning most sublime ! 
The brightest era of revolving time ! 

Driven fromi their orbs, the affriglited stars shall fly. 
Like angry meteors, down the troubled sky; 
Bright lightnings flash, and awful thunder roll. 
And peals on peals reverberate to the pole. 

Fierce storms shall beat the lofty mountain's side, 
Back to its source each rapid i-iver glide ; 
The sun grow dim, the moon be turn'd to blood. 
And all creation, trembling, own her God. 

Hark ! from the skies, the trumpet's piercing sound 
Eends the dark tombs, and cleaves the solid ground ; 
An angel voice proclaims, " Ye mortals, come. 
Attend the judgment, and receive your doom." 

Eoused by his potent voice, the dead obey. 

And life reanimates the torpid clay ; 

The graves yawn wide, the tombs give up their dead. 

And ocean heaves them from his deepest bed. 

In crowding ranks the deathless forms arise. 
While awful thunders rend the vaulted skies, 
And, robed in terror, from his bright abode. 
The Judge descends, the eternal Son of God. 

High seated on a throne of heavenly light. 
Above the sun's meridian splendour bright ; 
Millions of seraphim before him fly. 
And angel-bands attend him down the sky. 

A starry diadem his head adorns. 
That once was circled with a wreath of thorns, 
^Vhen, the blest herald of redeeming grace. 
He veil'd in flesh the brightness of his face. 

When erst by bland compassion's influence moved, 

A pilgrim-stranger o'er the earth he roved, 

A life of pain and suffering he led. 

And had not where to lay his sacred head. 

Now round that head a sun's bright glories blaze. 
In arrowy circles and unnumber'd rays; 
Beneath his feet, careering storms are driven ; 
And in his train are all the hosts of heaven. 



Judgment begins ; the hooks are open'd wide ; 
On either hand the gathering crowds divide ; 
While all in heaven, in earth, and hell draw near, 
Their great decisive destiny to hear. 

Ranged on the right, the just in order stand. 
Robed all in white, and palms in every hand ; 
While on the left promiscuous crowds appear. 
Pale with aflright, and chill'd with torturing fear. 

Judgment proceeds, the Saviour claims his own. 
And graceful rising from his glittering throne, 
" All hail, ye blest," he cries, " to you are given 
Crowns of bright glory, and a seat in heaven. 

" Your race is run, the conflict well sustain'd. 
The warfare over, and the prize obtain'd; 
You who have borne the cross the crown shall wear, 
Yau who have shared my shame, my glory share. 

" For you shall streams of joy eternal roll. 

And floods of glory burst upon the soul; 

For you angelic choirs their harps employ, 

And heaven's high vaults resound with songs of joy." 

He speaks, and lo! the happy millions raise 
Loud halleltijahs and immortal praise ! 
Angelic harps the grateful strain prolong. 
And heaven's high arches echo with the song ! 

But, oh ! unhappy race, to wisdom blind. 
Enslaved to sin, to endless wo consign'd ! 
In vain for grace and mercy now they cry; 
The time is past, the guilty soul must die. 

In vain, in hopeless agony they call, 
" Hide us, ye rocks ! Ye mountains, on us fall !" 
Once mercy call'd, but these refused to hear. 
Now justice frowns, in majesty severe. 

Down, down they sink to realms of endless night. 
Where anguish wails aloud, and spectres fright ! 
Where no bright beams of hope or mercy glow. 
To gild the shadows of the house of wo ! 

Oh ! if the Judge, from his eternal throne. 
Shall not condemn the deeds that I have done ; 
Oh ! if I find my humble name impress'd 
In. the bright archives of my Saviour's breast ; 

Then shall my heart in grateful transport raise 
Harmonious anthems of ecstatic praise ; 
With joy divine, my God and Saviour meet. 
And cast my blood-bought triumphs at his feet. 



THE GREAT DAY. 



BY 3IACKELLAR. 



The shi ver'd skies flee fast away ; and flame 
And smoke burst out, and horrid noises roar 
As if a burning sea surged on the sliore. 
And rack'd old Nature's perishable frame. 
Creation shudders ; and the trembling sun 
Turns red like blood, and casts a crimson glare 
Throughout the heaving billows of the air ; 
2E 



The moon and stars, as if affrighted, run 

In wild confusion; while the trump of God 

Resounds, and all the dead are call'd to life. 

And— hush'd at once the elemental strife— 

In solemn stillness men await his nod. 

Ah, day of doom ! Redeemer ! Brother ! Friend ! 

Protect thine own— whose hopes on Thee depend ! 



350 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PRIVATE LETTERS OF A LATE 
TRAVELLER IN EUROPE. 

Rome, Jan. 1st. — You heard from us at Venice. Our next journey 
was to Florence, by the way of Bologna, which took six days, including 
one spent at Bologna, where are some of the finest paintings in Italy. 
Here we had the good-fortune to meet Madame Pasta, the most cele- 
brated singer of her time and country. The day after we heard her, we 
commenced crossing the Apennines, a much more laborious task than 
crossing the Simplon. We were obliged to stop over night on the moun- 
tains in a storm of rain and snow, and such a place as the inn you never 
conceived of, and I hope you will never see such a den of thieves and 
dirt. We could neither get any thing fit to eat or fire to warm us, and 
the water came into the house by night, and wet the garments we had- ; 
taken ofi", in the hope of finding rest. To complete the whole, the inn- 
keeper had the insolence to demand double the price of a respectable and 
comfortable hotel. But we had been long enough in Italy to know what 
knaves the innkeepers are. The only way to get along with them and 
not quarrel is, to bargain sharply for every thing you want, before you 
consent to stay. This jockey knew that we could not get away that 
night, and thought us in his power. We, however, escaped being mur- 
dered and got off safely, which is more than others have done on this 
road. Indeed, we slept the nest night where, a few years ago, a 
whole family were murdered and every vestige of them carefully con- 
cealed. But this we did not know till we had left the house the nest 
day. I forgot in my last letter to tell you that at Ferrara we saw some 
of the manuscripts of the poets Tasso and Ariosto, and a chair and ink- 
stand that once belonged to the latter. We also visited the gloomy and 
damp dungeon in which the Duke Alphonso kept Tasso confined for 
seven years, under pretence of his insanity, but, in fact, because there 
was an attachment between the duke's sister and the poet. 

At Florence we passed a week. This is the capital of the Grand-duke 
of Tuscany's dominions ; it is situated on the river Arno, and is sur- 
rounded by the most delightful regions imaginable. A wide amphithe- 
atre of hills or mountains, principally the Apennines, is covered with 
vineyards and olive-groves. Nothing can be conceived finer than the 
view of this enchanting valley of the Arno, as one descends from the 
snowy regions of the Apennines into this terrestrial paradise. The olive- 
tree, you know, is an evergreen, and the harvest of the olives is late. When 
we crossed the mountains about the middle of November, the trees were 
loaded with fruit. The transition as one descends from the Apennines 
is so sudden, that the change seems like enchantment. We passed Val- 
ombrosa on the left, and came suddenly into the midst of these vineyards 
and olive-groves. I had never seen the olive-tree before, and now they 
stretched their green branches as far as the eye could reach. 

The olive grows on the same ground and is interspersed with the vines. 



EXTRACT FROM A PRIVATE LETTER. 351 

At Florence, we found many superb galleries of paintings, and in the 
public gallery are some of the finest specimens of statuary in the world. 
There is the "unimitated and inimitable" Venus de Medici, which is 
considered the finest work of art, sharing this glory only with the Apollo 
Belvidere at Rome. 

Rome. — But we have at length reached the "eternal city," seven- 
hilled Rome, and are now at our " own hired house," on the banks of the 
Tiber, in the heart of the city, with St. Peter's in full view. It is the 
custom here to let rooms already furnished, and we have taken very 
pleasant apartments for the winter. * * * * 

We have made some progress in seeing the wonders of Rome, but have 
yet much to do. Most of the ancient city is in ruins ; the modern city 
is partly over them and partly on one side. The most stupendous of 
these ruins is the Colosseum. This vast pile, of an oblong form, which 
could contain about one hundred thousand spectators to see the games, 
is still in sufl&cient preservation to show its height and greatness. We 
visited it by moonlight the night after we arrived at Rome. But who 
can give utterance to the emotions that are called forth by the first visit 
to the Colosseum ? No monument of human greatness, no relic of the 
past ages speaks so forcibly to the heart or seems so intimately to connect 
the present with the ancient world, as this mighty ruin, this gigantic 
structure, formed by man for eternity, but which now serves only to 
show how perishable are his works, even in the plenitude of his power. 
On the day when this amphitheatre was first opened, Titus Vespasian is 
said to have caused five thousand wild beasts to be slain in the arena, in 
the sport of that single day. It was here, too, that the early Christians 
sufi"ered martyrdom by hundreds, being exposed to wild beasts for the 
amusement of infidel spectators. In consequence of this, Benedict XIV. 
proclaimed the Colosseum consecrated ground, and thereby arrested the 
progress of demolition that was going on, by using the stones and mar- 
ble of this exhaustless pile for the building of other edifices. It is to 
him that the world is indebted for the present state of this magnificent 
ruin. The centre wall of the Colosseum, which is nowhere broken 
down nearer than thirty or forty feet from the ground, is sixteen hun- 
dred and fifty feet in circumference, and one hundred and fifty-seven in 
height. 

The galleries or seats were one above another, all around, receding 
from the arena in the centre, till they slanted back and upward nearly 
to the top of the outer wall. 

The arena, where the beasts and gladiators fought, was two hun- 
dred and seventy-eight feet long and one hundred and seventeen feet 
wide. 

Now, there is a cross erected in the centre of the arena, and an inscrip- 
tion promising two hundred days of indulgence to those who kiss it. 
There are sentinels on duty by night and day around the Colosseum to 
prevent abuse, and to make it safe to visit the ruins in the evening, as 
many robberies were formerly committed hei'e. This ruin is about a 
mile out of the inhabited part of the modern city, but within the walls, 



352 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

and surrounded with the ruins of temples, triumphal arches, and the 
proud palaces of the Caesars. 

Of St. Peter's I can now say nothing; to describe it would fill a 
volume. It is, without doubt, the most spacious, most perfect, and most 
sublimely beautiful temple ever raised to the worship of the Eternal God. 
Man dwindles into nothing within its walls. It comes nearer than any 
thing I had ever imagined, to a " house not made with hands." 

Hampton Court.- — This is the residence of the former kings of Eng- 
land. The palace and royal establishment are kept up, although the 
present king never stays there. Indeed, no use has been made of the 
royal apartments since G-eorge II. The nobility and gentry occupy the 
splendid buildings attached to the king's apartments, but no one ever 
occupies them. The situation is beautiful; the gardens, pleasure-grounds, 
canals, &c. are charming, and one is at a loss why so delightful a place 
should not be honoured, at least, by an occasional visit from his ma- 
jesty. 

We were conducted through all the apartments of state, which are 
hung with beautiful paintings on every side. The bedchamber of King 
William III. remains with its furniture, and even the damask bed-hang- 
ings, just as they were in his day. There is a clock in his room which 
goes by being wound up once a year. There is a beautiful lawn, with 
one of the handsomest sheets of water I have ever seen facing the saloon. 
Near the palace is likewise a labyrinth or maze, formed by a hedge of 
closely interwoven hornbine, which is not allowed to grow more than sis 
feet high. Between the windings of this hedge is a footpath, which, if 
rightly folloiced, leads to an arbour in the centre. But the difficulty is 
to find the way in, or out, if once in. This can only be done by know- 
ing the principle of the windings, which are so constructed as to mislead 
any one who follows merely the appearance of right. 

This extensive palace, with its costly appurtenances, was built and pre- 
sented to Henry VIII. by Cardinal Wolsey. This proud prelate must 
have amassed immense wealth, for he did great things in this way ; and 
among others founded one of the principal colleges in Oxford, viz. Christ 
Church College, of whose extent and magnificence I can give you no ade- 
quate idea. 

Windsor Castle, the residence of George IV. This, I believe, is 
considered the strongest castle in England. The palace, church, &c. 
are within the fortress, which is situated on an eminence commanding a 
varied, beautiful, and extensive prospect. The royal apartments are 
very superb, and the paintings they contain numerous and valuable. 
The king left the castle for London the evening we arrived. He is 
very shy, and is seldom seen except by his own household. It is said 
he has been the finest-looking man in England, but since he has lost his 
good looks he does not like to appear in public. St. George's Chapel, 
or the Church of Windsor Castle, is a beautiful and finished edifice. In 
one corner of it, in a recess, not obvious from the body of the church, is 
a splendid and very affecting monument of the Princess Charlotte. It 
is of white marble, and the figures are nearly or quite as large as life. 



GOOD HUSBANDS MAKE GOOD WIVES. 853 

The lifeless body is represented as stretched on a couch, and overspread 
with a thin semi-transparent drapery ; one hand and arm had fallen off 
from the couch and are hanging down by its side. At the head and feet 
are two kneeling figures, covered with veils ; above the whole, is a female 
figure in an erect position, as if about to ascend, while on each side of 
her is an angel with wings expanded. The angel on her right has a 
young infant in its hands. The moral of this, I suppose to be, that these 
angels are conveying the princess and her child to heaven, though she is 
dead to human senses. The light is admitted from behind, through 
stained glass, which, imparting to the marble something of its own colours, 
gives the whole group an unearthly appearance. 



GOOD HUSBANDS MAKE GOOD WIVES. 

There is something very lovely in seeing a woman overcome those 
little domestic disquiets which every mistress of a family has to contend 
with, sitting down to her breakfast-table in the morning with a cheerful 
countenance, and endeavouring to promote innocent and pleasant conver- 
sation among her little circle. But vain will be her amiable efforts at 
pleasure, unless she is assisted by her husband and other members 
around ; and truly it is an unpleasant sight to see a family, when col- 
lected together, instead of enlivening the quiet scene with a little good- 
humoured chat, sitting like statues, as if each is unworthy the attention 
of the other. And then, when a stranger comes in, dear ! such smiles, 
and animation, and loquacity ! An ingenious writer says, " If a painter 
wished to draw the finest object in the world, it would be the picture of 
a wife, with eyes expressing the serenity of her mind, and a countenance 
beaming with benevolence ; one hand lulling to rest on her arm a lovely 
infant, the other employed in presenting a moral page to another sweet 
babe, who stands at her knee listening to the words of truth and wisdom 
from its incomparable mother.^' 



Sadness. — There is a mysterious feeling that frequently passes like 
a cloud over the spirits. It comes upon the soul in the busy bustle of 
life, in the social circle, in the calm and silent retreats of solitude. Its 
powers are alike supreme over the weak and the iron-hearted. At one 
time it is caused by the flitting of a single thought across the mind. 
Again, a sound will come booming across the ocean of memory, gloomy 
and solemn as the death-knell, overshadowing all the bright hopes and 
sunny feelings of the heart. Who can describe it, and yet who has not 
felt its bewildering influence ? Still it is a delicious sort of sorrow ; and 
like a cloud dimming the sunshine of the river, although causing a 
momentary shade of gloom, it enhances the beauty of returning bright- 
ness. 

2e2 23 



854 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



CONSTITUTION AND GUERRIERE. 

The Guerriere was lying to. The Constitution was leisurely bearing 
down vipon the enemy under her topsails — every man was at his respec- 
tive station, and all on board were eager for the contest, — when the 
Guerriere commenced the action at long shot. Commodore Hull gave 
a peremptory order to his officers not to apply a single match until he 
gave the word. In a few minutes a forty-two pounder from the Guer- 
riere took effect, and killed and wounded some of our brave tars. 
Lieutenant Morris immediately left his station on the gun-deck to report 
the same to the commodore, and requested permission to return the fire, 
as the men were very anxious to engage the enemy. 

" Mr. Morris," was the commodore's reply, " are you ready for action 
on the gun-deck ?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Well, keep so — but don't let a gun be fired till I give the word." 

In a few moments Mr. Morris again appeared, and stated that he could 
with difiiculty restrain the men from giving the enemy a broadside, so 
anxious were they to commence the engagement. 

" Mr. Morris," reiterated the commodore, intently gazing on the 
English frigate, " are you ready for action on the gun-deck ?" 

" Yes, sir; and it is impossible for me any longer to restrain the men 
from firing on the foe. Their passions are wrought up to the highest 
possible pitch of excitement. Several of our bravest seamen are already 
killed and wounded" — 

" Keep cool, Mr. Morris — keep cool. See all prepared, and do not 
suifer a gun to be fired till I give the word." 

The gallant lieutenant went below. In a few minutes, the vessels 
having neared each other to within pistol-shot distance, Morris was sent 
for to appear on. the quarter-deck. 

" Are you all ready for action, Mr. Morris ?" again demanded the 
commodore. 

"We are all ready, sir — and the men are uttering horrid imprecations 
because they are not suffered to return the fire of the enemy." 

" Fire then, in God's name !" shouted the commodore, in a voice of 
thunder. 

It is added, that he wore at the time a pair of nankeen tights; and 
he accompanied this sonl-clieering order with such a tremendous stamp 
on the deck with his right foot, that the unfortunate pantaloons were split 
open from the hnee to the waistband. 

The conduct of Dacres, before and during the action, was such as 
might have been expected from a brave and generous enemy. Mr. Reed, 
a young man belonging to Brewster, Massachusetts, at present a respecta- 
ble shipmaster out of Boston, had been pressed on board the Guer- 
riere a few weeks previous to the engagement. Several other American 
seamen were also on board. When the Constitution was bearing down 
in such gallant style, and it became evident that a severe action with an 
American frigate was inevitable, young Reed left his station and pro- 



CONSTITUTION AND GUERRIBRE. 355 

ceeded to the quarter-deck, and respectfully but firmly represented to 
Captain Dacres, that he was an American citizen, who had been un- 
justly detained on board the English frigate; that he had hitherto 
faithfully performed the duties which were assigned him ; and that it 
could not reasonably be expected he would fight against his countrymen ; 
he therefore begged leave to decline the honour of participating in the 
engagement. 

The English captain frankly told him that he appreciated his patriotic 
feelings; that he did not wish the Americans on board to use arms 
against their countrymen ; and he subsequently ordered them all into 
the cockpit, to render assistance to the surgeon, if it should be neces- 
sary. Reed left the spar-deck after the Gruerriere had commenced the 
action. Several shot were known to have taken efi"ect, but the Consti- 
tution had not yet fired a gun — much to the amusement of the British 
tars, who predicted that the enemy would be taken without resistance, 
with the exception of a veteran man-of-war' s-man, who was in the battle 
of the Nile, and grufily observed, with a significant shake of the head- — 
*' That damn'd Yankee knows what he's about." 

A few moments passed away, and the Constitution poured in her tre- 
mendous broadside — every gun was double-shotted and well pointed, and 
the eftect which it had on the enemy can hardly be conceived. Mis- 
timed jests and jeers at the imperturbable but harmless Yankees gave 
place to the groans of the wounded and dying, and sixteen poor mutilated 
wretches were tumbled down into the cockpit, from the efi"ects of the 
first broadside ! 

Dacres fought as long as a spar was standing and a gun could be 
brought to bear upon the enemy ; but when his masts were completely 
swept away, his ofiicers and men mostly killed and wounded, encumber- 
ing the decks ; while the scuppers were streaming with gore ; when the 
Guerriere, which a few hours before was justly considered one of the 
most splendid specimens of naval architecture which belonged to the 
British navy, lay on the water an unsightly, unmanageable mass ; when 
he had no longer the stump of a mast left from which to display the 
proud flag of his country, the gallant Briton began to think he had got 
into an vgli/ scrajje, from which he could not possibly extricate himself. 
He could no longer oppose even a feeble resistance to his more fortu- 
nate foe. 

Captain Hull sent an officer to take possession of the G-uerriere. 
When he arrived alongside, he demanded of the commander of the 
English frigate, if he had struck. 

Dacres was extremely reluctant to make this concession in plain terms, 
but with a shrewdness which would have done honour to a Yankee, 
endeavoured to evade the question. 

" I do not know that it would be prudent to continue the engagement 
any longer," said he. 

''Do I understand you to say that you have struck?" inquired the 
American lieutenant. 

"Not precisely," returned Dacres; "but I don't know that it will 
be worth while to fight any longer.'^ 



356 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

" If you tiiink it advisable, I will return aboard," replied the Yankee^ 
"and we will resume the engagement." 

"Why, I am pretty much liors de comhat already," said Dacres ; "I 
have hardly men enough left to work a gun and my ship is in a sinking 
condition." 

'' I wish to know, sir," peremptorily demanded the American officer, 
" whether I am to consider you as a prisoner of war, or an enemy. I 
have no time for further parley/' 

" I believe there is now no alternative. If I could fight longer, I would 
with pleasure — ^but I — must — surrender — myself — a prisoner of war I" 



THE GRAVE OE JEFFERSON. 

The following description of the place where rest the mortal remains 
of the sage of Monticello, will doubtless be interesting to every reader: — 

I ascended the winding road, which leads from Charlottesville to 
Monticelio. The path leads a circuitous ascent of about two miles up the 
miniature mountain, to the farm and the grave of Jefferson. On enter- 
ing the gate which opens into the enclosure, numerous paths diverge in 
various directions, winding through beautiful groves to the summit of 
the hill. From the peak on which the house stands, a grand and nearly 
unlimited view opens to the thickly wooded hills and fertile valleys 
which stretch out on either side. The university, with its dome, por- 
ticoes, and colonnade, looks like a fair city in the plain. Charlottesville 
seems to be directly beneath. No spot can be imagined, combining 
greater advantages of grandeur, healthfulness, and seclusion. The house 
is noble in its appearance; two large columns support a portico, which 
extends from the wings, and into it the front door opens. The apart- 
ments are neatly furnished, and embellished with statues, busts, portraits, 
and natural curiosities. The grounds and outhouses have been neglected ; 
Mr. Jefferson's attention being absorbed from such personal concerns 
by the cares attendant on the superintendence of the university, which, 
Avhen in health, he visited daily since its ei'ection commenced. 

At a short distance behind the mansion, in a quiet shaded spot, the 
visitor sees a square enclosure, surrounded by a low unmortared stone 
wall, which he enters by a neat wooden gate. This is the family burial- 
ground, containing ten or fifteen graves, none of them marked by epi- 
taphs, and only a few distinguished by any memorial. On one side of 
this simple cemetery is the resting-place of the patriot and philosopher. 
When I saw it, the vau.lt was just arched, and in readiness for the plain 
stone which is to cover it. May it ever continue, like Washington's, 
without any adventitious attractions or conspieuousness; for, when we 
or our posterity need any other memento of our debt of honour to those 
names, than their simple inscription on paper, wood, or stone, gorgeous 
tombs would be a mockery to their memories. When, gratitude shall 
cease to consecrate their remembrance in the hearts of our citizens, no 
cenotaph will inspire the reverence we owe to them. 



MEMORY. — VIETUE. 357 



MEMORY. 



Whatever Las once given us pain or pleasure is remembered long, 
and recurred to often, as we pass down the journey of life to the gray 
hairs and solitude of our last years. Love has been to every one the 
source of both. Every one has treasured away on the sacred pages of 
memory a thousand little incidents, ever to be revealed in time, to whichj 
as to some fascinating fiction, it returns, whenever a gloomy or an idle, 
unsocial hour, calls up the musing spirit, and turns the mind upon the 
past. Life, reviewed through the mists of bygone years, seems rather a 
curiously wrought fiction, or a feverish dream, than a stern reality. We 
are surrounded by mementos of the affection of friends, but these friends 
themselves are gone. We remember the counsels of wisdom, the sage 
instructions of experience, by which our minds were formed, and a 
direction given to the current of our thoughts and habits ; but the lips 
from whence they flowed have long been mute as the still valley where 
they lie mouldering. We have danced and sung with the gay and giddy, 
aiid been enraptured at the thrilling voice and kindling eye of beauty, 
but we are alone. The visions have passed from us. In one graveyard 
and another there are little hillocks, and white stones bearing remember- 
ed names, and this is all, all that is left to us. But it is among the 
melancholy ruins of the past that we gather the richest stores for the 
future. It is there we learn how very vain are earthly hopes — how 
fleeting earthly friends — how frail even the strongest chords of affection. 
It is there we learn to prepare for another state of being. 



VIETUE. 

Virtue is the brightest ornament of youth. As, on the one hand, 
religion never appears more lovely and engaging than when it dwells on 
the lips and is exhibited in the lives of young people ; so, on the other 
hand, young persons never appear so amiable, and deserve so much 
esteem and confidence, as when they are religious ; when they walk in 
the paths of virtue, honesty, sobriety, and integrity. Always interest- 
ing in itself, youth is rendered doubly so when associated with the graces 
and tempers of the gospel. A young man or a young woman, destitute 
of religion, may be very estimable and worthy on account of the amiable- 
uess of their dispositions and the propriety of their deportment. But 
where the spirit and the graces of Christianity are added, it is like add- 
ing life and motion to a statue which we have admired for its proportion 
and decoration. But a young person of elegant form and engaging 
manners, who lives in profligacy, impurity, and blasphemy, deserves to 
be compared to a finished statue, streaming forth corruption and poison- 
ing the atmosphere with contagion and death. 



858 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE NEW ARMY BILL. 



Extract from Mr. Clay's Speech in the House of Representatives, 
January, 1813. 

I OMITTED yesterday, sir, when speaking of a delicate and painful sub- 
ject, to notice a powerful engine which the conspirators against the inte- 
grity of the Union employ to effect their nefarious purposes — I mean 
Southern influence. The true friend to his country, knowing that our 
Constitution was the work of compromise, in which interests apparently 
conflicting were attempted to be reconciled, aims to extinguish or allay 
prejudices. But this patriotic exertion does not suit the views of those who 
are urged on by diabolical ambition. They find it convenient to imagine 
the existence of certain improper influences, and to propagate, with their 
utmost industry, a belief of them. Hence the idea of Southern preponder- 
ance, — Virginia influence, — the yoking of the respectable yeomanry of 
the North, with negro slaves, to the car of southern nabobs. If Virginia 
really cherish a reprehensible ambition, an aim to monopolize the chief 
magistracy of the country, how is such a purpose to be accomplished ? 
Virginia, alone, cannot elect a president, whose elevation depends upon 
a plurality of electoral votes, and a consequent concurrence of many 
States. Would Vermont, disinterested Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, 
independent Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, all consent 
to become the tools of inordinate ambition ? — But the present incumbent 
was designated to the office before his predecessor had retired. How ? 
By public sentiment, — public sentiment which grew out of his known 
virtues, his illustrious services, and his distinguished abilities. Would 
the gentleman crush this public sentiment, — is he prepared to admit 
that he would arrest the progress of opinion ? 

The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated to herself the 
pretension of regulating our foreign trade, under the delusive name of 
retaliatory orders in council, — a pretension by which she undertook to 
proclaim to American enterprise, — '' Thus far shalt thou go, and no 
farther," — orders which she refused to revoke after the alleged cause 
of their enactment had ceased ; because she persisted in the practice of 
impressing American seamen ; because she had instigated the Indians to 
commit hostilities against us ; and because she refused indemnity for past 
injuries upon oiir commerce. I throw out of the question other wrongs. 
The war in fact was announced, on our part, to meet the war which she 
was waging on her part. So undeniable were the causes of the war, — 
go powerfully did they address themselves to the feelings of the whole 
American people, that when the bill was pending before this house, 
gentlemen in the opposition, although provoked to debate, would not, or 
could not, utter one syllable against it. It is true they wrapped them- 
selves up in sullen silence, pretending they did not choose to debate 
such a question in secret session. While speaking of the proceedings 
on that occasion, I beg to be permitted to advert to another fact which 
transpired, — an important fact, material for the nation to know, and 



THE NEW ARMY BILL. 359 

wticli I have often regretted had not been spread upon our journals. 
My honourable colleague (Mr. McKee) moved^ in committee of the whole, 
to comprehend France in the war ; and when the question was taken 
upon the proposition, there appeared but ten votes in support of it, of 
whom, seven belonged to this side of the House, and three only to the 
other ! It is said that we were inveigled into the war by the perfidy of 
France ; and that had she furnished the document in time, which was 
first published in England, in May last, it would" have been prevented. 
I will concede to gentlemen every thing they ask about the injustice of 
France towards this country. I wish to Grod that our ability was equal 
to our disposition to make her feel the sense that we entertain of that 
injustice. The manner of the publication of the paper in question was 
undoubtedly extremely exceptionable. But I maintain that, had it made 
its appearance earlier, it would not have had the effect supposed ; and 
the proof lies in the unequivocal declarations of the British government. 
I will trouble you, sir, with going no further back than to the letters of 
the British minister, addressed to the secretary of state just before the 
expiration of his diplomatic functions. It will be recollected by the 
committee that he exhibited to this government a despatch from Lord 
Castlereagh, in which the principle was distinctly avowed, that to produce 
the effect of a repeal of the orders in council, the French decrees must 
be absolutely and entirely revoked as to all the world, and not as to 
America alone. A copy of that despatch was demanded of him, and he 
very awkwardly evaded it. But on the tenth June, after the bill declaring 
war had actually passed this house, and was pending before the Senate, 
(and which, I have no doubt, was known to him,) in a letter to Mr. 
Monroe, he says : " I have no hesitation, sir, in saying that G-reat 
Britain, as the case has hitherto stood, never did, nor ever could engage, 
without the greatest injustice to herself and her allies, as well as toother 
neutral nations, to repeal her orders as affecting America alone, leaving 
them in force against other states, upon condition that France would 
except, singly and specially, America from the operation of her decrees." 
On the fourteenth of the same month, the bill still pending before the 
Senate, he repeats : " I will now say, that I feel entirely authorized to 
assure you, that if you can at any time produce a full and unconditional 
repeal of the French decrees, as you have a right to demand it in your 
character of a neutral nation, and that it be disengaged from any question 
concerning our maritime rights, we shall be ready to meet you with a 
revocation of the orders in council. Previously to your producing such 
an instrument, which I am sorry to see you regard as unnecessary, you 
cannot expect of us to give up our orders in council." Thus, sir, you 
see that the British government would not be content with a repeal of 
the French decrees as to us only. But the French paper in question 
was such a repeal. It could not, therefore, satisfy the British govern- 
ment. It could not, therefore, have induced that government, had it 
been earlier promulgated, to repeal the orders in council. It could not, 
therefore, have averted the war. The withholding of it did not occasion 
the war, and the promulgation of it would not have prevented the war. 
But gentlemen have contended that, in point of fact, it did produce a 



360 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

repeal of the orders in council. This I deny. After it made its 
appearance in England, it was declared by one of the British ministry, 
in parliament, not to be satisfactory. And all the world knows that the 
repeal of the orders in council resulted from the inquiry, reluctantly 
acceded to by the ministry, into the effect upon their manufacturing 
establishments, of our non-importation law, or of the warlike attitude 
assumed by this government, or of both. But it is said, that the orders 
in council are withdrawn, no matter from what cause ; and that having 
been the sole motive for declaring the war, the relations of peace ought 
to be restored. This brings me to the examination of the grounds for 
continuing the present hostilities between this country and Great Britain. 
I am far from acknowledging that, had the orders in council been 
repealed, as they have been, before the war was declared, the declaration 
of hostilities would of course have been prevented. In a body so nu- 
merous as this is, from which the declaration emanated, it is impossible 
to say, with any degree of certainty, what would have been the effect of 
such a repeal. Bach member must answer for himself. As to myself 
I have no hesitation in saying, that I have always considered the im- 
pressment of American seamen as much the most serious aggression. 
But, sir, how have those orders at last been repealed ? Great Britain, 
it is true, has intimated a willingness to suspend their practical opera- 
tion, but she still arrogates to herself the right to revive them upon certain 
contingencies, of which she constitutes herself the sole judge. She waives 
the temporary use of the rod, but she suspends it in terrorem over our 
heads. Supposing it to be conceded to gentlemen that such a repeal of 
the orders in council as took place on the twenty-third June last, ex- 
ceptionable as it is, being known before the war was proclaimed, would 
have prevented it ; does it follow that it ought to induce us to lay down 
our arms, without the redress of any other injury of which we complain ? 
Does it follow, in all cases, that that which would in the first instance 
have prevented would also terminate the war ? By no means. It re- 
quires a strong and powerful effort in a nation prone to peace as this is, to 
burst through its habits and encounter the difficulties and privations of 
war. Such a nation ought to but seldom embark in a belligerent contest; 
but when it does, it shonld be for obvious and essential rights alone, and 
should firmly resolve to extort, at all hazards, their recognition. The war 
of the Revolution is an example of a war begun for one object and prose- 
cuted for another. It was waged, in its commencement, against the right 
asserted by the parent country to tax the colonies. Then no one thought 
of absolute independence. The idea of independence was repelled. But 
the British government would have relinquished the principle of taxa- 
tion. The founders of our liberties saw, however, that there was no se- 
curity short of independence, and they achieved that independence. 
When nations are engaged in war, those rights in controversy which 
are not acknowledged by the treaty of peace are abandoned. And 
who is prepared to say, that American seamen shall be surrendered, as- 
victims to the British principle of impressment ? And, sir, what is this 
principle ? She contends that she has a right to the services of her own 
subjects; and that, in the exercise of this right, she may lawfully im- 



THE NEW ARMY BILL. 361 

press them, even altliough she finds them in American vessels, upon the 
high seas, without her jurisdiction. Now, I deny that sire has any 
right, beyond her jurisdiction, to come on board our vessels, upon the 
high seas, for any other purpose than in the pursuit of enemies, or their 
goods, or goods contraband of war. But she further contends that her 
subjects cannot renounce their allegiance to hei', and contract a new 
obligation to other sovereigns. I do not mean to go into the general 
question of the right of expatriation. If, as is contended, all nations 
deny it, all nations at the same time admit and practise the right of 
naturalization. Great Britain herself does this. Great Britain, in the 
very case of foreign seamen, imposes, perhaps, fewer restraints upon 
naturalization than any other nation. Then, if subjects cannot break 
their original allegiance, they may, according to universal usage, con- 
tract a new allegiance. What is the effect of this double obligation ? 
Undoubtedly, that the sovereign having the possession of the subject 
would have the right to the services of the subject. If he return within 
the jurisdiction of his primitive sovereign, he may resume his right to 
his services, of which the subject, by his own act, could not divest 
himself. But his primitive sovereign can have no right to go in quest of 
him, out of his own jurisdiction, into the jurisdiction of another sovereign, 
or upon the high seas, where there exists either no jurisdiction, or it is 
possessed by the nation owning the ship navigating them. But, sir, this 
discussion is altogether useless. It is not to the British principle, objec- 
tionable as it is, that we are alone to look, — it is to her practice, — no 
matter what guise she puts on. It is in vain to assei't the inviolability 
of the obligation of allegiance. It is in vain to set up the plea of neces- 
sity, and to allege that she cannot exist without the impressment of 
HEB seamen. The naked truth is, she comes, by her pressgangs, on 
board of our vessels, seizes OUB native as well as naturalized seamen, 
and drags them into her service. It is the case, then, of the assertion 
of an erroneous principle, — and of a practice not conformable to the 
asserted principle, — a principle which, if it were theoretically right, must 
be for ever practically wrong — a practice which can obtain countenance 
from no principle whatever, and to submit to which, on our part, would 
betray the most abject degradation. We are told by gentlemen in the 
opposition, that government has not done all that was incumbent on it 
to do, to avoid just cause of complaint on the part of Great Britain, — ■ 
that, in particular, the certificates of protection, authorized by the act of 
1796, are fraudulently used. Sir, government has done too much in 
granting those paper protections. I can never think of them without 
being shocked. They resemble the passes which the master grants to 
his negro slave, " Let the bearer, Mungo, pass and repass without mo- 
lestation." What do they imply ? That Great Britain has a right to 
seize all who are not provided with them. From their very nature they 
must be liable to abuse on both sides. If Great Britain desires a mark 
by which she can know her own subjects, let her give them an ear mark. 
The colours that float from the mast-head should be the credentials of our 
seamen. There is no safety to us, and the gentlemen have shown it, but 
in the rule that all who sail under the flag, (not being enemies,) are 



362 FIELDS'S SCKAP-EOOK. 

protected by the flag. It is impossible that tbis country should ever 
abandon the gallant tars who have won for us such splendid trophies. 
Let me suppose that the genius of Columbia should visit one of them in 
his oppressor's prison, and attempt to reconcile him to his forlorn and 
wretched condition. She would say to him, in the language of gentle- 
men from the other side : " Great Britain intends you no harm ; she 
did not mean to impress you, but one of her own subjects, having taken 
you by mistake ; I will remonstrate, and try to prevail upon her, by 
peaceable means, to release you, but I cannot, my sod, fight for you." 
If he did not consider this mere mockery, the poor tar would address 
her judgment, and say, " You owe me, my country, protection ; I owe 
you, in return, obedience. I am no British subject, I am a native of 
old Massachusetts, where live my aged father, my wife, my children. I 
have faithfully discharged my duty. Will you refuse to do yours ?" 
Appealing to her passions, he would continue : " I lost this eye in fight- 
ing under Truxtun, with the Insurgente ; I got this scar before Tripoli ; 
I broke this leg on board the Constitution, when the Gruerriere struck." 
If she remained still unmoved, he would break out, in the accents of 
mingled distress and despair, 

Hard, hard is my fate! once I freedom enjoy' d, 

Was as happy as happy could be! 

Oh ! how hard is my fate, how galling these chains ! 

I will not imagine the dreadful catastrophe to which he would be 
driven, by an abandonment of him to his oppressor. It will not be, it 
cannot be, that his country will refuse him protection. 



LIBERTY AND UNION. 

Extract from Mr. Webster's speech, in reply to Mr. Hayne, of 
South Carolina, on Foot's resolution, relative to the public lands. De- 
livered in the Senate, January 26, 1830. 

But, sir, although there are fears, there are hopes also. The people 
have preserved this, their own chosen Constitution, for forty years, and 
have seen their happiness, prosperity, and renown grow with its growth, 
and strengthen with its strength. They are now, generally, strongly 
attached to it. Overthrown by direct assault, it cannot be ; evaded, un- 
dermined, NULLIFIED, it will not be, if we, and those who shall succeed 
us here, as agents and representatives of the people, shall conscientiously 
and vigilantly discharge the two great branches of our public trust — 
faithfully to preserve, and wisely to administer it. 

Mr. President, I have thus stated the reasons of my dissent to the 
doctrines which have been advanced and maintained. I am conscious 
of having detained you and the Senate much too long. I was drawn 
into the debate, with no previous deliberation, such as is suited to the 



LIBERTY AND UNION. 363 

discussion of so grave and important a subject. But it is a subject of 
which my heart is full, and, I have not been willing to suppress the 
utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. I cannot, even now, persuade 
myself to relinquish it, without expressing once more my deep convic- 
tion, that, since it respects nothing less than the Union of the States, 
it is of most vital and essential importance to the public happiness. I 
profess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have kept steadily in view the 
prosperity and honour of the whole country, and the preservation of our 
Federal Union. It is to that Union we owe our safety at home, and 
our consideration and dignity abroad. It is to that Union that we are 
chiefly indebted for whatever makes us most proud of our country. 
That Union we reached only by the discipline of our virtues in the 
severe school of adversity. It had its origin in the necessities of disor- 
dered finance, prostrate commerce, and ruined credit. Under its benign 
influences, these great interests immediately awoke, as from the dead, and 
sprang forth with newness of life. Every year of its duration has 
teemed with fresh proofs of its utility and its blessings ; and although 
our territory has stretched out wider and wider, and our population 
spread farther and farther, they have not outrun its protection or its bene- 
fits. It has been to us all a copious fountain of national, social, and 
personal happiness. I have not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 
Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have 
not coolly weighed the chances of preserving liberty, when the bonds 
that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed 
myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my 
short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below ; nor could I 
regard him as a safe counsellor in the affairs of this government, whose 
thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union should 
be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people 
when it shall be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we 
have high, exciting, gratifying prospects spread out before us, for us 
and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. Grod 
grant that, in my day at least, that curtain may not rise. Grod grant 
that on my vision never may be opened what lies behind. When my 
eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may 
I not see him shining on the broken and dishonoured fragments of a 
once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a 
land rent with civil feuds ; or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! 
Let that last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous 
Ensign of the Eepublic, now known and honoured throughout the earth, 
still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original 
lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing 
for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as. What is all this worth ? 
nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first and Union 
a/terioards ; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light^ 
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the 
land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, 
dear to every true American heart — Liberty and Union, now and for 
ever, one and inseparable ! 



864 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES. 



JfE'EK Tvaved beneath the golden suu 

A lovelier banner for the brave. 
Than that our bleeding fathers ^von, 

And proudly to their children gave ; 
Nor earth a fairer gem can bring, 

Or freedom claim a brighter 'scroll. 
Than that to which our free hearts cling — 

The flag which lights the freeman's soul ! 

Its glorious stars in azure shine. 

The radiant heraldry of heaven, 
Its stripes in beauteoxis order twine. 

The emblems of our union given ; 
And tyrants with a trembling gaze 

Survey its bright and meteor glare ! 
While glory's beams around us blaze. 

And rest in fadeless splendour tliere ! 

Look, freemen ! on its streaming folds. 

As gallantly they range afar. 
Where freedom's bird undaunted holds 

The branch of peace and spear of war ; 
"While high amid the rolling stars, 

AVith words which every heart expand. 
Within her beak serene she bears 

The badge of our united land ! 

Behold thy star-wrought ensign sweep. 

Thy country's pride, the tyrant's bane; 
Unrivall'd on the foaming deep, 

Uncouquer'd on the battle-plain. 
Along the exulting mountain gale 

'Tis borne with wild maj estic flo w. 
As trailing meteors sky-svard sail. 

And leave the dazzled world below '. 



From shore to shore, from hill to hill, 

Where freedom's voice has yet been heard, 
'Tis welcomed with a holy thrill. 

And oft rebellion's flame hath stirr'd. 
Around the globe, through every clime. 

Where commerce wafts or man hath trod. 
It floats aloft unstain'd with crime, 

But hallow'd by heroic blood. 

Though Fra:iice has crush'd her Bourbon flower. 

And seized the flag her valour sought. 
She holds it as oppression's dower — 

A name is all the boon it brought. 
Though Albion boasts her cross of blood, 

Encrimson'd on a thousand plains. 
Yet freedom's caiise she hath withstood. 

And mark'd it with redeemless stains. 

But thine, Columbia ! thine's the prize, 

To cheer the free and guide the brave. 
To wave through earth's remotest skies. 

And plant upon oppression's grave. 
Thine is the standard freedom wrought. 

To rear above the lion's form, 
Whose flame their martyr'd fathers sought. 

To cheer them through the battle's storm. 

Flag of the free ! still beai: thy way, 

TJndimm'd, through ages yet untold : 
O'er earth's proud realms thy stars display 

Like morning's radiant clouds unroll'd. 
Flag of the skies, still peerless shine, 

Through ether's azure vault unfurl'd. 
Till every hand and heart entwine 

To sweep oppression from the world ! 



TO ELLEN. 



BY THE MILFORD BARD. 



ElIjEW, on thy red lip lingers 
Silver tones that toue'n'd my heart, 

When thy soft and snowy fingers 
Woke the harp with angel art; 

Still I hear that heavenly lay. 

As it softly floats away. 

Oh, there is no music stealing 
On the soul by sorrow wrung, 

Like those lays of love and feeling. 
Woman's music-melting tongue 

Warbles when her heart, in glee, 

Tastes of love the luxury. 

Ellen, in thy bright eye's beaming 
Light that shone upon my heart. 

When of love my soul was dreaming. 
And the joys it did impart ; 

Still I see that glance of gladness, 

S6ill it drives me on to madness. 



Oh, there is no light that streamefcli 
From yon glorious globes on high. 

Like the blessed ray that beameth 
In the angel azure e.ve 

Of fond woman when she's feeling 

Love within her bosom stealing. 

Ellen, on thy cheek so charming. 

Dwells a blush that won my soul. 
When love, all my bosom warming, 

Bow'd me to thy blest control ; 
Still I see that blush of beauty. 
Tell-tale both of love and duty. 

Oh, there is no hue that gushes 
Or from Nature or from art 

Like the rich and rosy blushes 
Springing up from woman's heart. 

When she feels witli ecstasy 

Love's delicious luxury. 



VALEDICTION.. 365 



VALEDICTION, 

Addres&ed to the young ladies of the Knoxville Female Academy, iclw, 
having cotnpleted the course of sttidies prescrihcd in the institution,, 
toere about to receive the testimonials due to their respective merits — 30rA 
September, 1831. 

BY JOSEPH EASTAEROOK, PRINCIPAL. 

Through the favour of an indulgent Providence, the year has roiled 
round and finds us actors on the occasion of another anniversary ; and 
I am again required, in~ behalf of the Trustees and Instructors of the 
Seminary, to present you, young ladies, with the testimonials of our 
confidence. And though, in so doing, we express our unqualified ap- 
proval of the past, we are not without solicitude. We are anxious ivv 
the future, — we are solicitous that the expectations of your friends and 
of society concerning you should not be disappointed. We hope here- 
after to find you distinguished for your intelligence, an honour to your 
parents, the delight and ornament in the circle of your associates. The 
rudiments of literature and science which you have here acquired are 
to be regarded as only a prelude to further progress. The mind as well 
as the body is formed for activity. It acquires strength and energy 
from vigorous exercise. If that be suspended, its powers are paralyzed 
and enfeebled, and it gradually sinks into the imbecility of infancy. To 
this cause more frequently than to any other, is to be attributed the 
wide difference in mental energy observable in the advanced periods of 
life. You meet with an individual, once capable of no ordinary effort, 
now exhibiting the intellect of a child. You meet with another who 
has seen many a dark and stormy winter, whose earthly tenement is 
about tumbling to ruin, but whose internal edifice is without spot or 
blemish, — retaining all the beauty, order, and grandeur of manhood and 
of youth. 

The enterprise and liberality which erected these walls and spread 
around you these advantages ; this crowded, respected, and intelligent 
assembly, who have listened with so much candour and politeness to our 
exercises, indicate how interesting to the community and how very im- 
portant to you is the cultivation of your minds and hearts. The period 
of human life is often exhausted on a science which has occupied your 
attention only for a few months, — and that too without discovering but a 
small part of what is capable of being known. . I make the remark for 
the purpose of showing you how much there is yet to learn in relation 
to every branch that has been an object of pursuit. Do not abandon 
your books ; but persevere in your attention to such authors and in such 
manner as will tend to your advancement. A man is known by the 
company he keeps. The same is true of books. Like confidential asso- 
ciates, they exert a secret powerful influence, and their impress, good or 
bad, is legibly stamped upon the character ; when of an unfavourable ten- 
dency, the poison is often unseen and unfelt, till it has infected every 
avenue of moral life, till resistance and remedy are alike unavailing. 

2p2 



866 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Works of fiction are by no means to be exclusively condemned. Fa- 
miliar stories, interesting tales adapted to the capacities of children, 
have a happy influence in withdrawing their minds from toys and trifles 
to something intellectual, and, at the same time, in conveying useful and 
important instruction. There is another class of fictitious writings, many 
of them as to moral tendency wholly unexceptionable, which have too 
much attraction for youth. The imagination is so perfectly charmed 
and the sympathy so keenly excited in the perusal, that whatever of 
truth or error they contain passes unheeded, the mind being intent only 
OB the sequel. There are those who peruse these productions without 
detriment, perhaps to advantage, but it is in cases where the love or the 
pursuit of truth is the moving principle of the soul. Such a one will 
find her out, though obscured by the subtleties of skepticism or clad in 
the trappings of folly. But when the fondness for knowledge is just 
budding into life, where the labour of useful acquirement is no longer 
irksome, but begins to be a pleasure, how much to be deprecated is any 
circumstance tending to obstruct so happy a prospect, or blight such 
high-raised hopes. I am not using the language of fancy, — I have seen 
numbers whose diligence and industry had given rise to the highest ex- 
pectations, but the mind, from injudicious reading, receiving an unfavour- 
able impulse, they never after advanced one step in the path of wisdom 
and knowledge. A taste for fictitious writings, too early and too eagerly 
indulged, is a fatal impediment. You will inevitably acquire a distaste 
for profitable employment, and abandon that kind of pursuit which is 
suited to give you eminence in society. While connected with the semi- 
nary, the requisitions of the teachers, the anxiety of your parents, your 
own emulation and pride of character, all concur to compel your atten- 
tion ; but when these circumstances cease to operate, then comes the 
hour of trial. There is more danger to be apprehended in relation to 
you than to youth of the other sex. They are subjected to a longer 
and severer course of study, and may be afterwards entirely dependent 
on their talents and learning for the means of living, or, at least, for 
their standing and influence in society. Experience soon teaches them 
that the exclusive perusal of novels is not the rough and thorny road to 
the temple of fame. Nor is the reading of such authors requisite to 
give you a knowledge of human nature, or to guard you against the 
wiles of the designing and the wicked. If called upon to select a sub- 
ject for imposition, I would point to that individual whose days and 
nights were devoted to works of fiction. We sometimes hear it re- 
marked that they afford relaxation, and are useful in giving an impulse 
to the imagination. This may be true where a habit of application has 
become so firmly rooted as to render it, in a manner, a constituent of the 
mind itself. But youth have too much imagination. They already live 
an ideal life, and it is the object of academic discipline to give the 
ascendency to the powers of the understanding. And here, were the dis- 
tinction philosophical, I could point you out two kinds or states of the 
imagination as far divergent, as unlike in their effects and operations as 
truth and error, wisdom and folly. The one is a wayward fancy, in- 
dulging in revery, the companion of ignorance, bearing us hither and 



VALEDICTIOJT. 867 

thitlier at will, rendering tlie thinking faculties wholly unmanageable 
and incapable of literary effort. But when this "creative power'' is 
chastened by reflection ; and from continued and severe application sub- 
jected to control, its utility and importance cannot be overrated or con- 
ceived. It is the source of every embellishment, of whatever is rich 
and luxuriant in language. It is the foimdation of every' thing beautiful 
in description or sublime in conception, — in fine, it is genius herself, 
'^ riding abroad on the whirlwind and storm," collecting her materials, 
and laying at the feet of her master all that is grand in nature or capti- 
vating in art. 

You will therefore appreciate the importance of being watchful, of 
being sufficiently guarded against the pursuit of any course which will 
carry you downward, instead of upward, in the scale of improvement. 
In your further progress, I would not, in the first instance, advise the read- 
ing of voluminous works, in which there is as much speculation as 
historical record; but rather those histories which are condensed or 
abridged. Voyages and travels, well-selected poetry, interesting annals, 
or biographical sketches will sufficiently amuse, and at the same time 
instruct you. And whenever a question of interest occurs on any of 
the sciences to which you have here been attending, recur to your books, 
nor leave them till the difficulty be solved. Pursue this course for a 
comparatively short period, and your love of knowledge will acquire such 
strength that, whether you read fiction or fact, nothing will eradicate that 
heaven-born principle. 

However important may be the culture of the understanding, that of 
the heart is still more so. Not only your own peace of mind and your 
ascendency in society materially depend on this, but the happiness also 
of all around you. It is not enough to appear amiable, to affect those 
qualities which mankind so highly and so justly appreciate ; it is indis- 
pensable you should possess them. Though you may be blessed with 
the talents and learning of a Newton, and the graces and accomplishments 
of the fabled Houries, without mildness of temper, amiableness and 
gentleness of disposition, your influence, if you exert any, will be transient. 
Were we on this subject to form our opinion from the fancy of the 
poet, and not from observation in real life, we might be led into error. 
The power there spoken of is not of woman as she always is, but as she 
always ought to be. She is the constituted guardian of morals and 
manners, — in virtue and refinement the guide. She is looked upon as 
the source and centre of all the kind and gentle qualities, which mitigate 
the misery and soften the wretchedness of human life ; and which seem 
to constitute the only redeeming circumstance, the only luminous spot 
on the dark page of our history. No wonder then that in her mankind 
will tolerate no departure from decorum, nor forgive the absence of those 
celestial virtues to which she is indebted for her ascendency over us. 
The one is an offence against society, the other against herself. Let 
there be manifest an unamiable sentiment, a single outbreaking of temper, 
or deviation from propriety, and the spell is broken, her power and 
dominion are gone. But, on the other hand, if to a cultivated under- 
standing be added " the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," " a charity 



868 PIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

that seeketh not her own," a heart overflowing with every good and kind 
and gentle quality, — such a one has a hold on the affections of society, 
an involuntary imsought-for influence, an empire over the hearts of 
others, imperishable and illimitable. It is at the fii-eside of home, rather 
than here, that the forming of character to social and domestic virtue is 
to be perfected. There you may be aided by parental solicitude, and 
profit by the counsel of those friends who are your elders in age and 
knowledge. '■'■ Children, obey your parents in all things," is the language 
of inspiration. It is the language of reason and experience, and the only 
safe road to lasting happiness. The intense anxiety with which they 
watch over your growing minds and increasing years, their hopes and 
fears, their joys and despondencies, may be felt, but they cannot be 
described. They live, if I may so speak, only for you. In sickness their 
cares are redoubled, nor remitted in health. They doubly feel what you 
feel, and sufl'er what you suffer. No danger or difficulty is avoided, no 
labour or expense spared, if it may contribute to your happiness or result 
to your advantage. Since, then, it is within your power, how great are 
your obligations, how urgent the motive to be all that your parents 
desire ! Such being the fact, who can estimate the happiness you will 
impart? Whatever be their toils and troubles in this ever-varying, ever- 
changing world, they will then meet them with courage and endure 
them with fortitude. And when called to their final account; " when 
their toils are all ended, their troubles all over," the bright bow of 
promise which appears in the prospects of their children, sheds a mild 
and genial radiance over the soul. It soothes their departing spirits 
and kindles the smile of satisfaction and peace in defiauce of the fell 
destroyer. 

To contrast the scene, go with me to an apartment in yon mansion, 
where the king of terrors has likewise entered ) where the gray hairs of 
an affectionate parent are about to be brought with sorrow to the grave 
by the vices and ingratitude of his children. As he lies stretched on 
the bed of suffering, you see in his careworn visage the expression of 
pangs far keener than are extorted by expiring agony. You turn your 
eye for the cause — and there stands by his bedside a dissolute son, — 
on whose countenance thd bold impress of vice is too legible to escape ' 
even that dim eye which is now about closing for ever ! The thought is 
too painful — I cannot place beside him an unfeeling, an undutiful 
daughter. And Heaven grant the last clay-cold sweat may never be 
wiped from my forehead by the hand of an unfeeling child ! 

However deeply I would impress on your minds the duty you owe to 
others, I would not omit that which you owe to your Father in heaven. 
In short, by promoting the happiness of all around you, you best perform 
what is required by him. Your expectations of earthly bliss are liable 
to be too sanguine. Human life is a checkered scene, an alternate«.suc- 
cession of weal and wo. In the cup of the most prosperous are mingled 
" the wormwood and the gall." Disappointments and afflictions are not 
sent as the final reward of our deeds. They are designed to lessen, our 
attachment to things here, to render our transition from time less poignant 
or more desirable — an event we are inevitably to expect, and for which 



THE HOURS. 369 

we are daily to prepare. With us there is much cause of gratitude to 
the forbearance of a kind and indulgent Providence. No one of our 
number since the opening of the seminary, within my knowledge, has 
fallen a prey to the great enemy of human life. But in the mean time, 
has the destroyer been without his victims ? Has his hand been 
slackened in carrying desolation and wo into the abodes of felicity and 
peace ? No — he has been active elsewhere. And though we have been 
spared, other and worthier victims were selected. In looking round upon 
the circle of friends who are wont on such occasions to encourage you by 
their presence, I remark^they are not all here. They are absent — 
mothers — and a daughter in Israel ! If the most active piety, — if the 
practice of all the virtues that bless our race, — if prayers — if tears could 
have availed, they had now been with us. But they are gone ! Affection 
weeps, society mourns their loss ! And is there no consolation ? What 
mean those eff'ulgent rays now penetrating this dark cloud of affliction 
and sorrow ? It is the light of their example, illumining the pathway 
of the just, and guiding to those mansions of eternal rest where affliction 
and sorrow never enter. Let me say then to you, my young friends, 
imitate them m piety, practise their virtues, so shall your end be joyous 
and your rest eternal. 



THE HOURS. 

BY F. K. ZOLLICOFFER. 

Neither substance quite nor shadow, 
Courting lonely moor and meadow, 
BasTiing round the bubbling spring, 
Riding on the whirlwind's wing. 



How systematically beautiful is the order of the hours ! With 
what harmony they move on in the bright tenor of their way ; and what 
a moral do they teach to the reflecting and meditative mind ! They are 
the symbols of human happiness. They are the vignette and the em- 
blem of life, fairly pointing out to the intelligent eye those purer models 
of earthly excellence which are too beautiful to last. Like the tran- 
sient bubbles of a boundless ocean which for a moment reflects on its 
surface the fair imagery of heaven, they burst in the plenitude of their 
mimic beauty, and depart, forgotten, and for ever returnless. With all 
their terrible responsibility — with all their weight of human happiness 
and of human wo — with all the anxieties, impulses, conquests, and 
overthrows of desultory life — with the hope, the phrenzy, the ambition 
and despair, that move and agitate a boundless creation, they depart 
from us and are gone for ever — they move oif into the oblivious ocean 
of the past, and not a wreck nor a shadow remains of that influence 
which for a period filled heaven, and held the destiny of the universe. 

They are the book of nature, in whose harmonious foldings and 
enamelled pages we read the existence of an Omnipotent Author. 
Who has not felt the divinity of the hours, warm and fresh upon his 

24 



370 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

soul, when life was youug and innocence abroad in his spirit ? Who 
has not been made glad with their enlivening influence when fortune 
frowned, and adversity with her scorpion sting plied the sore and de- 
sponding soul ? Who has not, in prosperity, gazed on the morning 
hour, and admired the hand that modelled it? There is not a monu- 
ment of nature in which the beauty of creation is more apparent, or the 
existence of an overruling Divinity made more manifest, than in the 
wonderful order and perpetual harmony of the hours. Their regular 
departure and return — their voiceless modulations through the varied 
egress of day — the imperceptible changes from the sombre to the beau- 
tiful, from the shadow of darkness to the unmoiled effulgence of light 
— and their happy and intuitive influences over the impulses of the 
heart, point clearly to the origin of that matchless design, that beautiful 
system which has no parallel. With the limpid freshness of the rising 
morn, they blend the rich ray of meridian splendour, and in the lap of 
sable night repose they the lovely twilight. The colours of the rainbow 
are not more varied, more fleeting, or more beautiful than they; and 
yet they are the counterpart of human feeling. How peculiarly adapted 
to the diversity of the mind, and how happily apportioned to the diifer- 
ent pursuits and diversions of man ! As varied as the tinselling of a 
summer cloud, as variegated as the leaves of an autumnal forest, are the 
hues of human impulse and of human feeling; but there is not a mould 
of mortal mind, from an Addison to a Voltaire, from a Byron to a Gruy, 
which has not found its kindred hour. There is an hour of fellowship 
for the high-born soul — and for the most grovelling spirit that prowls 
the earth, there is a period of hallucination. The most buoyant dispo- 
sition — and yet the most melancholy — are equally companioned ; and 
we are forced to exclaim, as we reflect on the peculiar and wonderful 
harmony which characterizes their respective tendencies, that there is a 
Divinity above which shapes the soul, and moulds its elysium to the 
halcyon hour ! 

How grateful to the young and ardent spirit is the hour of dawn — 
the fresh, cool dawn of a summer morning ! The early swallow, high 
twittering on his airy spire, feels the heavenly influence, and wheels 
headlong down the abyss ; then breasting the healthy current, again 
speeds upward in a thousand fickle turns, till, resting on his chosen 
height, he melodiously warbles his paean to the morning air. The 
humble hare now frisks out to sip the limpid dew. ^Tis Heaven's beni- 
son — and enough for him; he drinks and is refreshed. And fain would 
he now await the rising orb of the east, and gambol in his mellow ray ; 
— but why does he fly ? — hark ! the pleasures he meditates are denied 
him. The wild blast of the hunter's horn breaks over the hills, and the 
redoubling cry of the opening pack brings a fearful warning to his little 
bosom. It is the signal of death ! Oh, can it be that man may so bar- 
barously pervert the use of this happy hour, — that he may turn from 
the holy embrace of moral purity, and seek to bathe his hands in the 
life-blood of a harmless creature ? Ah I this is the price of innocence, 
and this is a history of its fate. 

But let us turn from this melancholy fancy to the full appreciation of 



THE HOURS. 371 

the morning hour. Let us picture to ourselves the little village-green 
or rural lawn over which we ran in childish innocence, and proudly 
planted the first footprint on the hillock green. It is now the orison 
hour — and a thousand souls are mingled in prayer. The sun is just 
bursting away from the blue mountains, and as his radiance shoots broad 
and long over the wide expanse of farm and forest, a thousand shape- 
less shadows start, and perform their lowly revolution about the ac- 
knowledged lord of day. The birds are singing in the adjoining grove 
— the peasant adds his rural sti-ain, and, with the sweet symphony of 
nature's song, is now commingled the low but lovely chime of the dis- 
tant village bell. How refreshing — how delightful is the morning hour 1 
With what an enrapturing consonance of sound and sight, of woodland 
song and woodland scenei-y, does it regale the soul ! It is the hour of 
joy — the paragon of nature's beauty — the emblem of youth ! It is a 
subject for a poet's fancy, and happy, happy may he be, who can weave 
into the meshes of his song the spirit of the mantling morn. 

We are dazzled with the splendour of noon. We behold the sun 
glorying in the zenith of his power, the sole monarch of a cloudless 
heaven, and our conceptions are filled with the bright and beautiful. It 
is the hour of adorative feeling. The mind delights to associate it 
with a more effulgent light, and we readily behold in it a symbol of the 
glory of Grod. It is a beautiful hour — calm and unruffled as a martyr's 
mind, and bright as the hope that animates his bosom. Unfanned by a 
breeze, unrefreshed by a shower, nature sleeps. Silent are the meadows 
and silent are the mountains — there is not a sound in this " sameness 
of splendour," save the solitary tinkle of the distant bell, or the cease- 
less hum of the little honey-bee, as he bestows a gentle kiss on the 
nectared petal of each adjoining flower. The lazy voluptuary now lolls 
upon his gilded sofa, and the mountain shepherd as happily reclines him 
on the green-sward beside his panting charge ; the sturdy ploughman, 
parched with thirst, retires to the sequestered brook, where, falling upon 
his breast, he quaffs full freely of the refreshing current; while the idle 
school-boy, proud of his hour of freedom, flies to the far-off rivulet, and 
sinks deep in its ambling bosom. This is the hour of fainting nature, 
— vegetation shrinks, and the spirit of the little flower is gone ere it is 
half-blown. Then how grateful the zephyr, how welcome the intervening 
cloud, which for a moment hovers over the drooping field and pours in 
its fleet but refreshing sympathy, as if heaven itself had wept the splen- 
did ruin. 

The hour of sunset, how beautiful ! It is as the last hope of the 
dark and erring spirit, stricken out at the hour of death. The mind is 
stung by the association, but the imagination is held captive by the 
beauty of truth, and we fondly linger on the sweet yet pensive idea. 
How often, when the west has gathered in its golden fragments, and 
earth put on her emerald green, have I gazed on this pantomime of 
nature with the idolatry of a fervid imagination ! How often, with 
full and rapturous feeling, have I contemplated the ethereal imagery 
impressed on a western horizon, till the glowing picture faded from my 
view, and I was forced to know it as a mockery ! I have seen it as an 



872 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

herculean battlement reared by furies and flaming witli the heat of in- 
ternal warfare. I have gazed on its crimsoned vapours, piled broad and 
high, and based on a band of western mountains, and pictured to myself 
the gigantic towers of a golden bastion built by nature's architect and 
planted on the rock of ages. I have fancied it a " giant emerald set in 
sapphire/' or as a sardine stone in the wreath of a vestal, and, with the 
caprice of imagination, have held it up as the distant illumination of a 
sea of glory, or as the bright abode of a world of cherubim. But, false 
as my fancy, it hath faded away, and nature is putting on her soberest 
attire. 

•"Tis the tranquil hour of evening twilight. How still is earth — 
how serene the aspect of heaven ! How transcendently lovely, to the 
meditative mind, are all objects at this hour ! The pensive spirit sinks 
into a haven of rest; the high-born but neglected soul now pillows itself 
on a bosom of conscious innocence, and the stern and rational mind 
calmly surveys the puissant and happy operations of nature's laws. 
With what facility does the mind now collate and amalgamate the hap- 
piness of the past ! with what fondness do we now turn to the recollec- 
tion of better days and fairer prospects ! and how often and with what 
fidelity does memory recall the shadows of departed friendship, that 
never will — never can bless us more ! The tomb, that cheerless habita- 
tion of the dead, has received our friend ; the little ones that loved us 
in our youth, the fond ones that smiled on us in health and smoothed 
our fevered brow in illness, those guardian ones who watched over us 
with a parent's care and caressed us as a noble boy — the tender, solicit- 
ous father — the dear, devoted mother — all are gone; and as the gnarled 
and withered oak on the mountain's brow, all friendless and companion- 
less, we weather the storm alone. 

How beautiful is the departure of the twilight hour ! Like the hope 
that makes lovely the death-bed of a Christian, as darkness impales the 
realms of earth, heaven's light is serene above, and soothes the pertur- 
bations of the soul. The orb of day has sunk to rest, the crimson sky 
has faded, night's sable influence rushes boldly up from her holes and 
crannies, and all is apparently lost, when, behold ! the prospect brightens, 
the scenery of heaven is changed. It is Nature at her evening toilet. 
The dim and hazy curtain of the past is rolled away, and the bespangled 
livery of night now decks the hour. How I love, at such an hour, to 
move along the dusky shore of the silver lake, till I reach the summit 
of some unfrequented rock, and there, alone, in the plenitude of melan- 
choly feeling, gaze abroad over its translucent bosom. How beautiful 
to behold the anomaly of heaven above, reflecting so accurately a firma- 
ment below, that one would almost fancy himself suspended in mid-air, 
in the centre of a system of interminable worlds ! How lovely, then, to 
see the little sail skimming into port, or to mark the course of the light 
canoe splitting the clear surface with a noiseless facility, and disappear- 
ing as the shadow of a vision. I have listened to the night-bird's even- 
ing carol, blended with the distant plash of the sturdy oar, and thought 
it harmony. I have listened to the zephyr and the boatman's whistle, 
and they were music to my ear; but I shall never forget the hour when 



REMEMBER ME. 873 

I first cauglit the sound of the patriot's song over the waters. The night 
was calm and all was still, when it rose from the bosom of the bay. I 
looked about me, and beheld I was alone, with 

A boundless heaven, a beauteous sea, 
A crescent moon, a little boat. 
And the spirit of the song. 

Three boatmen plied their oars, while three more stood erect, and my 
country's ditty, with the breathings of the flute, gave wings to the light 
sea vessel. They reached their little haven — the sound of the concert 
ceased — and, as an echo from a distant battlement, the brazen voice of 
MIDNIGHT rose lonely on the gale. 



KEMEMBER ME. 



There are not two other words in the language that call back a more 
fruitful train of past remembrances of friendship, than these. Look 
through your library, and when you cast your eye upon a volume that 
contains the name of an old companion, it will say — rememher mc. 
Have you an ancient album, the repository of the mementos of early 
affection ? turn over its leaves, stained by the finger of time — sit down 
and ponder upon the names enrolled upon them ; each says — rememher 
me. Go into the crowded churchyard, among the marble tombs — read 
the simple and brief inscriptions that perpetuate the memory of departed 
ones ; they, too, have a voice that speaks to the hearts of the living, 
and it says — remember me. Walk, in the hour of evening twilight, amid 
the scenes of your early rambles ; the well-known paths, the winding 
streams, the overspreading trees, the green and gently-sloping banks, 
will recall the dreams of juvenile pleasure, and the recollections of 
youthful companions; they, too, bear the treasured injunction — remem- 
ber me. 

And this is all that is left at last of the wide circle of our early 
friends. Scattered by fortune, or called away by death, or thrown with- 
out our band by the changes of circumstance or of character, in time 
we find ourselves left alone with the recollection of what they were. 
Some were our benefactors, and won us by their favours ; others were 
kind, and amiable, and affectionate, and for this we esteemed them ; 
others, again, were models of virtue, and shared our praise and admira- 
tion. It was thus a little while, and then the chances of the world broke 
in upon the delighted intercourse ; it ceased. Yet still we do all we 
can to discharge the one sacred, and honest, and honourable debt — we 
remember (hem. 

The tribute, too, of remembrance which we delight to pay to others we 
desire for ourselves. The wish for applause ; the thirst for fame ; the 
desire that our names should shine down to future posterity in the glory 
of recorded deeds, is a feverish unhappy passion, compared with the 
unambitious desire to retain, even beyond the span of life, the affections 

2G 



874 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

of the warm-hearted few who shared our joys and sorrows in the world. 
I once read the brief inscription " Kemember me," on a tombstone, in 
a country churchyard, with a tear, that the grave of Bonaparte would 
not have called forth. 

But whom do we always remember with affection ? The virtuous, the 
kind, the warm-hearted ; those who have endeared themselves to us by 
the amiableness of their characters. It is the mind, the disposition, the 
habits, the feelings of our friends which attach us to them most strongly ; 
which form the only lasting bond of affection ; which alone can secure 
our affectionate remembrances. 

Then, if we would be remembered with the kindliest feelings; if we 
would be embalmed in the memory of those we love ; if we desire that, 
when fortune, or fate, shall separate us from our friends, they may long 
think of us ; we must possess ourselves the same character we love in 
others. Never was a more noble line written in the history of man 
than this — " The first emotion of pain he ever caused was caused by 
his departure." 



WOMAN. 



A CRABBED acquaintance of ours has just repeated to us, " Frailty, thy 
name is woman." We were trying to get him to call with us on a very 
beautiful lady of our acquaintance. He is a scholar, a wit, and a gentle- 
man, and yet dares to repeat that villainous line in our hearing. Alas 
for him ! we fear he is past redemption. We cannot conceive why the 
fair sex have been so often vilified. We declare it unjust, and we enlist 
ourselves in their defence ; notwithstanding Virgil hath said, " Woman 
always various and changeable" — and Shakspeare, " Frailty, thy name is 
woman." 

Woman is not more variable than man. Her constancy has stood the 
test of fire, and blood, and torment, in thousands of instances, and shall 
she be called fickle ? We verily believe that woman's friendship is 
infinitely more disinterested, infinitely more pure than man's. She will 
follow her lover throngh weal and wo — through evil report and good 
report — ^through poverty, through sorrow, and misery, and death. She 
will love him in his sin, and in his glory, and in his shame, and in his 
degradation ; and she will bind him the closer to her heart, as he falls 
the lower. Will man do so ? No — let but the breath of evil report dim 
the brightness of the pure name of that being whom he loves, let her 
sin but once, and he will forsake her for ever. Will he love her in abuse 
and ill-treatment? But suppose she coquet, and trifle with the affections 
of the worthy ? Has she not been taught by example ? How many 
hearts have broken and bled to death when forsaken by man ! How 
many women have given their whole affections away, and poured out 
their whole hearts upon a lover, and then been forsaken I How often 
have attentions been offered to gratify vanity, and to please pride ! How 
often ? Alas ! who shall answer the cjuestion ? — Neio Yorh paper. 



VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 



375 



VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 

Blackwood's Magazine, in an article entitled Chateaubriand, contains, 
among other extracts from his works, the following beautiful description 
of the valley of Jehoshaphat : — 

The valley of Jehoshaphat has in all ages served as the burying-place 
to Jerusalem ; you meet there, side by side, monuments of the most 
distant times and of the present century. The Jews still come there to 
die, from the corners of the earth. A stranger sells to them, for almost 
its weight in gold, the land which contains the bones of their fathers. 
Solomon planted that valley; the shadow of the temple by which it was 
overhung — the torrent, called after grief, which traversed it — the Psalms 
which David there composed — the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which its 
rocks re-echoed under it, the fitting abode of the tomb. Christ com- 
menced his passion in the same place ; that innocent David there shed, 
for the expiation of our sins, tears which the guilty David let fall for 
his own transgressions. Few names awaken in our mind recollections 
so solemn as the valley of Jehoshaphat. It is so full of mysteries, that, 
according to the prophet Joel, all mankind will be assembled there 
before the Eternal Judge. 

The aspect of this celebrated valley is desolate ; the western side is 
bounded by a ridge of lofty rocks which support the walls of Jerusalem, 
above which the towers of the city appear. The eastern side is formed by 
the Mount of Olives, and another eminence called the ]\Iount of Scandal, 
from the idolatry of Solomon. These two mountains, which adjoin each 
other, are almost bare, and of a red and sombre hue ; on their desert 
side you see here and there some black and withered vineyards, some 
wild olives, some ploughed land, covered with hyssop, and a few ruined 
chapels. At the bottom of the valley, you perceive a torrent, traversed 
by a single arch, which appears of great antiquity. The stones of the 
Jewish cemetery appear like a mass of ruins with which they are sur- 
rounded. Three ancient monuments are particularly conspicuous, those 
of Zachariah, Jehoshaphat, and Absalom. The sadness of Jerusalem, 
from which no smoke ascends, and in which no sound is heard ; the soli- 
tude of the surrounding mountains, where not a living creature is to be 
seen ; the disorder of these tombs, ruined, ransacked, and half exposed 
to view, would almost induce one to believe that the last trump had 
been heard, and that the dead were about to rise in the valley of Jeho- 
shaphat. 



HOME. 



Sing a sweet melodious measure, 
Waft enchanting lays around; 

Home — a theme replete with pleasure, 
Home — a grateful theme resound. 



Home, sweet home ! an ample treasure ! 

Home, with every blessing crown'd, 
Home, perpetual source of pleasure, 

Home, a noble strain resound. 



376 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



BLENNERHASSET'S ISLAND, AND BURR'S CONSPIRACY. 

BY JUDGE HALL. 

But I know that you are by this time ready to ask me, whether I am 
seriously endeavouring to convince you that Burr was a true and loyal 
subject to the sovereign people of these United States. I have no such 
design, though, I must confess, that if I had the power to execute so dif- 
ficult a project, I would with pleasure employ it. I should be happy to 
obliterate a stain from the annals of my country, and a blot from the 
fame of a fellow-citizen. I should be glad also to be always victorious 
in argument, if I could admit that success was the test of truth. But 
this I do not believe. I will tell what I do believe. I believe that nine- 
tenths of Burr's adherents knew no more of his projects than you, and 
I, and all the world, and that those who do know any thing will be wise 
enough to keep their own counsel. But if I cannot tell you what Colo- 
nel Burr intended to do, I can relate what he did ; for here I am in sight 
of the deserted fi.elds and dilapidated mansion of the unfortunate Blen- 
nerhasset ! That this fairy spot, created by nature in one of her choicest 
moods, and embellished by the hand of art, was once the seat of a philo- 
sophic mind, has already been told in language which I need not attempt 
to emiilate. But, alas ! I cannot recognise the taste of Blennerhasset, 
or realize the paradise of Wirt. All is ruin, solitude, and silence! 
They are gone who made the wilderness to smile. 

Blennerhasset was an Irish gentleman of easy fortune — a man devoted 
to science, who retired from the world, in the hope of finding happiness 
in the union of literary and rural occupation. He selected this island as 
his retreat, and spared no expense in beautifying and improving it. He 
is described as having been retired in his habits, amiable in his propen- 
sities, greatly addicted to chemical studies, and a passionate lover of 
music. In this romantic spot and in these innocent pursuits he lived ; 
and to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife, who is said to have 
been lovely, even beyond her sex, and graced with every accomplishment 
that could render it irresistible, had blessed him with her love, and made 
him the father of her children. But Blennerhasset, in an evil hour, 
became acquainted with Burr— he imbibed the poison of his ambition, 
became involved in his intrigues, and shared his ruin — a ruin as com- 
plete, desolate, and hopeless, as his former state had been serene and 
bright. 

Whatever were Burr's intentions, it is certain that they embraced 
schemes so alluring, or so magnificent, as to win the credulous Blen- 
nerhasset from the abstractions of study and the blandishments of love. 
This island became the centre of operations — here arms were deposited 
and men collected ; and here, assembled round their watch-fires, young 
gentlemen, " who had seen better days," and '' sat at good men's feasts," 
endured all the rigours of the climate and the privations of a campaign, 
rewarding themselves in anticipation with the honours of war and the 
wealth of Mexico. Burr and Blennerhasset were the master-spirits who 



blennerhasset's island. 877 

planned their labours ; Mrs. Blennerhasset was the light and life of all 
their social joys. If treason matured its dark designs in her mansion, 
here also the song, the dance, and the revel displayed their fascinations. 
The order of arrest was the signal of dispersion to this ill-fated band ; and 
it is said that the lovely mistress of this fairy scene, the Calypso of this 
enchanted isle, was seen at midnight " shi%^ering on the winter banks of 
the Ohio," mingling her tears with its waters, eluding by stratagem the 
ministers of justice, and destitute of the comforts of life and the solace 
of that hospitality which she had once dispensed with such graceful libe- 
rality. 

I believe it is not doubted that Burr intended to attempt the conquest 
of Mexico. A large portion of the people of that country were supposed 
to be waiting only for a favourable opportunity to throw off the Spanish 
yoke. The Americans, as their neighbours, and as republicans, would, 
it was thought, be received withoixt suspicion ; nor would Burr have 
unfolded his ultimate design, until it should be too late to prevent its 
accomplishment. He would have established a monarchy, at the head 
of which would have been King Aaron the First. I am told that the 
young gentlemen who were proceeding to join him often amused them- 
selves on this subject — talking, half in jest, and half in earnest, at the 
offices and honours which awaited them. 

Titles and places were already lavishly distributed in anticipation ; and 
Mrs. , who was an accomplished and sprightly woman, had ar- 
ranged the dresses and ceremonies of the court. When the alarm was 
given, and orders were given for the arrest of Burr and his adherents, 
they were obliged to resort to a variety of expedients to escape detection. 
At Fort Massac, and other places, all boats descending the river were 
compelled to stop and undergo strict examination, to the great vexation 
of boatmen and peaceable voyagers, who were often obliged to land at 
unseasonable hours. Vei-y diligent inquiry was made for the lady I 
have just mentioned, who several times narrowly escaped detection, 
through her own ingenuity and that of her companions. — Adieu. 



CURIOUS HISTORICAL FACT. 

During the troubles in the reign of Charles I., a country girl came 
to London in search of a place as a servant-maid ; but not succeeding, 
she hired herself to carry out beer from a brew-house, and was one of 
those called tub-women. The brewer, observing a good-looking girl in 
this low occupation, took her into his family as a servant, and after a 
short time married her; but he died while yet she was a young woman, 
and left her the bulk of his fortune. The business of the brewery was 
dropped, and to the young woman was recommended Mr. Hyde, as a 
skilful lawyer to arrange her husband's affairs. Hyde, who was after- 
wards the great Earl of Clarendon, finding the widow's fortune very 
considerable, married her. Of this marriage there was no other issue 
than a daughter, who was afterwards the wife of James II., and mother 
of Mary and Anne, c^ueens of England. 
2g2 



-378 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE DAMSEL OF PERU. 

BY ERTANT. 



Where olive leaves were twinkling in every wind 

that blew. 
There sat beneath the pleasant shade a damsel of 

Peru. 
Betwixt the slender boughs, as they open'd to the air, 
Came glimpses of her ivory neck and of her glossy 

hair ; 
And sweetly rang her silver voice within that shady 

nook. 
As from the shrubby glen is heard the sound of hidden 

brook. 

'Tis a song of love and valour in the noble Spanish 

tongue, 
That once upon the sunny plains of old Castile was 

sung ; 
When, from their mountain holds, on the Moorish 

rout below. 
Had rush'd the Christians, like a flood, and swept 

away the foe. 
A while that melody is still, and then breaks foi'th 

anew ; 
A wilder rhyme, a livelier note, of freedom and 

Peru. 

A white hand parts the branches, a lovely face looks 

forth. 
And bright dark eyes gaze steadfastly and sadly 

towards the north. 
Thou look'st in vain, sweet maiden, the sharpest 

sight would fail 
To spy a sign of human life abroad in all the vale ; 
For the noon is coming on, and the sunbeams fiercely 

beat. 
And the silent hills and forest-tops seem reeling in 

the heat. 



That white hand is withdrawn, that fair sad face is 

gene. 
But the music of that silver voice is flowing sweetly 

on; 
Not as of late, in cheerful tones; but mournfully and 

low : 
A ballad of a tender maid heart-broken long ago — 
Of him who died in battle, the youthful and the 

brave. 
And her who died of sorrow upon his early grave. 

But see, along that mountain's slope, a fiery horse- 
man ride ; 

Mark his torn plume, his tarnish'd belt, the sabre at 
his side. 

His spurs are buried rowel deep, he rides with loosen'd 
rein ; 

There's blood upon his charger's flank, and foam 
upon his mane : 

He speeds towards the olive-grove, along that shaded 
hill; 

God shield the helpless maiden there, if he should 
mean her ill ! 

And suddenly that song has ceased, and suddenly I 

hear 
A shriek sent up amid the shade, a shriek — but not 

of fear. 
For tender accents follow, and tender pauses speak 
The overflow of gladness, when words are all too 

weak : 
"I lay my good sword at thy feet, for now Peru is 

free, 
And I am come to dwell beside the olive-grove with 

thee." 



THE DEAD TRUMPETER. 



Wake, soldier ! wake ! thy war-horse waits, 

To bear thee to the battle back ; 
Thou slumberest at a foeman's gates ; — 
Thy dog woiild break thy bivouac ; — 
Thy plume is trailing in the dust, 
And thy red falchion gathering rust ! 

Sleep, soldier ! sleep !— thy warfare o'er, 

Not thine own bugle's loudest strain 
Shall ever break thy slumbers more 
With summons to the battle-plain; 
A trumpet note more loud and deep 
Must rouse thee from that leaden sleep ! 

Thou need'st not helm nor cuirass now, 
Beyond the Grecian hero's boast,— 

Thou wilt not quail thy naked brow. 
Nor shrink before a myriad host— 



For head and heel alike are sound, 
A thousand arrows cannot wound ! 

Thy mother is not in thy dreams, 

With that wild wither'd look she wore 
The day — how long to her it seems ! — 
She kiss'd thee at the cottage-door, 
And sickened at the sounds of joy 
That bore away her only boy ! 

Slebp, soldier ! let thy mother wait. 

To hear thy bugle on the blast; 
Th3' dog, perhaps, may find the gate. 
And bid her home to thee at last ; — 
He cannot tell a sadder tale 
Than did thy clarion, on the gale. 
When last— and far away,— she heard its lingering 
echoes fail. 



WHAT OF THE TIMES ? 879 



WHAT OF THE TIMES ? 

BY DB. JOHN BELL. 

What of the times, my kind Mentor? What but agitation, com- 
motion, and reyolution, was the reply. And, he added, after a pause, 
was it ever otherwise in the history of the world ? If we reflect ever so 
little, we cannot but discover that the mind of nations, like that of indi- 
viduals, must have unceasingly wherewithal to exercise and even to 
waste its powers. When superstition and war fail to furnish aliment, 
commercial enterprise, or the exercise of the fine and useful arts and all 
their pomp and circumstance, are next had recourse to. These obtained, 
new sources of agitation are opened ; people begin to cast anxious and 
inquiring glances at their situation ; and their relative position to each 
other and to their possessions is next scrutinized. They are restive under 
attempts made by their rulers and superiors to alter the value of pro- 
perty, and to abridge their sphere of personal movement. They now 
discuss the questions of right and privilege ; and amid their perplexity, 
growing out of the sophisms of courtiers and hirelings, and the evident 
differences among men in physical, moral, and intellectual endowment, 
as well as in the unequal possession of the goods of fortune by those who 
originally had similar and equal opportunities for acquiring them, they 
find it difficult to know themselves what to ask for, and still more difficult 
to know how they can obtain their claim, and how insui-e permanency 
to its objects. In this dilemma are the nations of the earth at the present 
time ; and hence the universal anxiety and perturbation. But was the 
world ever quiet, were mankind ever free from the influence of some 
strong impulse ? Let the past, however briefly told, be the reply. 

When Europe had recovered from the shock produced by the irruption 
of the barbarians and the subversion of the Roman empire, the people 
began to be agitated by the claims of rival monasteries for influence and 
endowment, and the marauding excursions of neighbouring barons and 
castellains. Superstition and war often assumed more imposing forms by 
involving the whole nation ; but they did not appear on that grand scale 
which gave them the semblance of religion and justice, until the period 
in which Europe poured not only her armed legions, but millions of her 
people over the plains of Asia. Piety and genuine devotion had little 
to do with the Crusades, although they were ostensibly engaged in for 
the recovery of the Holy Land from the infidels. The mainspring of 
action, the incitement with the many, was a spirit of adventure, a love of 
change, and a desire to escape from present restrictions, whether tyrannical 
or legal, by which the breast of man is ever agitated. Atheists, robbers, 
and pirates made common cause with bishops, knights, and barons. So 
motley was the group, and of such disreputable materials was it, at least 
in part, composed, that one writer rather quaintly exclaims, "A 
lamentable case, that the devil's blackguards should be God's soldiers." 
On one occasion the crusaders could allow themselves to attack and 
capture Constantinople — at another the island of Cyprus. It mattered 



380 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

little, provided tliey found employment for tlieir arms, and gratification 
of the love of wild adventure which impelled most of them to leave their 
homes. Knight-errantry was but another mode in which this restless 
spirit of mankind displayed itself. They who had not patience of dispo- 
sition to act the part of monks, to chant hymns, copy manuscripts, and 
get up miracles for the benefit of their monastery ; nor yet who possessed 
castles and retainers in sufficient force to tyrannize over their serfs and 
plunder their neighbours, took to the high road as knights errant ; arbi- 
trators, according to their own law, of disputes, and righters, after their 
own whims, of wrongs, whether real or imaginary. As men always 
must have some banner and motto under which to battle, theirs was 
chastity and valour, with impassioned regard for some fair dame, or one 
whom at least they persuaded themselves was fair, and to prove which, 
they would at any time dare a doubter to the combat, although it may 
have happened that they had never seen the object of their enthusiastic 
regard. These knights errant were about as sincere in their vocation as 
the younger sons of nobility and gentry, who enter the army to win 
honours and glory and the gratitude of their sovereign and the country. 
Place and profit are, of course, mere incidents in this brilliant and disin- 
terested career. 

It has been made a matter of reproach to the Italian republics, that 
they did not engage as zealously in the crusades as the people of France, 
Germany, and England. The reason is obvious ; they had not less of an 
orthodox spirit than their northern neighbors j but they found active 
employment in fighting with each other at home and trading abroad. They 
were not very solicitous to visit Syria and Egypt as soldiers, when they 
could more easily and profitably do it as merchants and mariners. They 
did not stand in need of any new impulse to agitate them — revolution was 
ever busy, and kept them fully occupied. An all-powerful duke this 
month, was a wanderer and an outcast the next; a triumphant faction in 
the city one day, were driven out as ignominious exiles the next. Even 
in the more regular, because absolute, governments of Rome and Naples, 
the vicissitudes of fortune among the rulers and the general agitation 
among the ruled, were scarcely inferior to the commotions experienced 
as a matter of course among the republics in middle and northern Italy. 
The episodes in the histories of those countries of the short revolutions 
accomplished by Cola di Eienzi in Kome, and at a later period by 
Massauiello in Naples, were evidences and effects of the restless and agi- 
tating spirit among the people, still more than the result of any precon- 
certed plan for the ameliorating of their condition. 

The fever of the crusades having subsided by the immense loss of 
lives on both sides, and the pallid sense of novelty of the surviving 
crusaders, the people of Europe found excitement and occupation in the 
struggles between sovereigns and their feudal barons for power and rule, 
in which the popes played a part by an occasional interdict and excom- 
munication. The successful resistance of the English barons gave them 
the Magna Charta, which served as a precedent and a stimulus to the 
body of the people to put, after a time, a check both on them and the 
king. In France the power of the crown became paramount, and 



WHAT OF THE TIMES ? 881 

swallowed tip both the privileges of the nobles and the rights of the 
commons. Some diversion to the public mind was of course given from 
time to time by a foreign war — as, for example, between France and 
England, and France and Germany. But cordially as the French and 
English hated each other, and bitter as was the rivalry between Francis 
the First and his imperial brother Charles the Fifth, these hates and 
jealousies had not in them enough of the leaven of change and revolution 
to rouse the people to a suitable pitch of general phrensy. This season- 
able ferment was, however, soon to be brought on by the Reformation of 
Luther and Calvin, the workings of which were shown in the long wars, 
miscalled, of religion, in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, and finally 
in England, Scotland, and Ireland; for the bloody struggle between 
Charles the First and his parliament, which cost that prince his crown 
and his head, was as much a war of religion as one waged to determine 
the respective rights of the parties in the conduct of the government. 

Europe might have been compared to an immense ship in shallows, 
without a rudder. She had leaned during the storm of the crusades 
to the East, and righted by part of her company throwing themselves 
on shore, to battle their way among the infidels. The discovery of the 
new world by Columbus drove the tumultuous crew to the other side ; 
she now careened to the West, and poured out detachment after detach- 
ment of restless beings, many of whom would submit to no discipline, 
whether it was attempted to be enforced by the captain or the chaplain — 
king or hierarchy. Others would, it is true, say prayers and repeat 
aves, but they were not on this account the less turbulent and piratical. 

The Spanish grandees, overshadowed by the growth of royal power, 
so as no longer to be able to tell their king, at his coronation, that they 
were each of them as good, and altogether more powerful than he, must 
have looked to the Western Hemisphere with peculiar pleasure, as a region 
in which they could, without more than nominal check, exercise sway 
over vast countries, and eventually return home with immense wealth 
and augmented influence. The mind of Spain, whether displayed ia 
conquest, personal adventure, or commerce, found in the new world ample 
scope for the exercise of its activity. It languished at home, it is true, 
and sank into a state of apathy, from which it has not yet recovered ; but 
the cause is obviously the one which we have just stated, since we find, 
that, coincident with, if not directly produced by the severance of the colo- 
nies from the mother country, and the consequent interruption to the 
active and profitable employment of the leading personages of the latter, 
were the popular agitation and commotion indicative of a desire for a 
new and more liberal form of government. 

England, the next to participate in the benefits of discovery and com- 
mercial adventure in the new world, became engaged in a different 
manner, which was productive also of different results from those which 
followed Spanish occupancy and possession. At first she amused her- 
self with plundering the Spaniards, in war by her regular navy, and in 
peace by her buccaneers; among the former of whom Drake, among the 
latter Morgan appears most conspicuous. Both had, it may be in- 
ferred, nearly equal claims to posthumous fame. Raleigh, more con- 



382 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

scientious and less successful, was brought to the block for incursions 
on Spanish America, that were not so illegal as those for which Drake 
had been received with acclamations by the people and knighted by his 
sovereign. In the latter case, however, it was the energetic Elizabeth, 
in the former the pusillanimous James who made the award. Finding 
that it could not divide empire with Spain in South America, the govern- 
ment of England allowed rather than actually planned and fostered emi- 
gration to North America. The temptations to settlement were infinitely 
less alluring for the English nobility and influential personages of the 
country than those which had induced the Spanish grandees and hidalgos 
to plan and execute their schemes of colonization. And fortunately for 
the people of America that it was so ; otherwise there might have been 
a class of nobility and an extensive church establishment, which, leagued 
with royalty at home, would have been powerful enough to smother de- 
mocracy in its infancy, or at least to have retarded for a length of time, 
far beyond our own day, its growth and maturity. 

Settlement and colonization in North America were essentially the 
result of agitation and discontent in England among those who felt 
themselves oppressed by religious and political intolerance. It was un- 
der these feelings that the Puritans landed in New England, Penn and the 
Friends in Pennsylvania, and Lord Baltimore and the Catholics in Mary- 
land. Unlike the Spaniards in South America, who obtained immense 
wealth from gold and silver mines, and who were soothed to luxurious 
repose by a mild and enervating climate, the English settlers were of 
necessity compelled to cultivate a soil which did not always yield a full 
harvest to their labour. They were, also, kept almost continually on the 
alert, to repel the incursions of the Indians, and after a while of the 
French, reinforced by their savage allies. With such causes of agita- 
tion and excitement, there was little risk of the leaven of republicanism 
and religious zeal, not to say fanaticism, being allowed to lose its fer- 
menting power. The first settlers in New England, the pilgrims who 
landed at Plymouth, were in fact republicans — not by abstract doctrinal 
belief, but forced thereto by long, angry, and agitating discussions in 
their fatherland. The new colony soon came to be regarded as the 
asylum of the oppressed, and a cradle of liberty. Of this no stronger 
evidence can be furnished than the fact that Cromwell, Hampden, Pym, 
Haselrigg, and other men, who afterwards took such a conspicuous and 
decisive part in the civil war between Charles and the Parliament, wei-e 
on the point of embarking with their families for New England. The 
government in an evil hour prevented the emigration. Of the result of 
this prohibition the after service and exploits of the three first-named 
characters abundantly testify. 

When the peace of 1763, which gave England possession of Ca- 
nada, found the colonies of North America freed from all danger from 
French invasion and depredation, nothing more seemed to be requisite 
than for them to enjoy all the advantages promised by such a state of 
things. But the spirit of the colonists, though soothed by success, was 
still essentially the same. A few blunders on the part of the English go- 
yernment Were sufficient to set in motion the elements of agitation, which 



WHAT OF THE TIMES ? 383 

soon assumed such a shape as to constitute revolution, secession, and in- 
dependence. Is the spirit of change, the love of strong perturbating 
excitement stilled among us ? We fear not. But we are narrators, not 
prophets. 

France, which had aided, by arms and money, young America in ob- 
taining her independence, was fated to realize the force of the mytholo- 
gical fiction, that supposed those who caressed Cupid, as an object of 
pity, should receive in return from the ungrateful boy, into their bosoms, 
the flame of passion to torture and consume them. France joined America 
in winning for the latter Liberty ; but she was not allowed to retire after 
the victory without herself receiving some of the spirit of this goddess. 
The materials for agitation and commotion were abundant ; little was 
requisite to set them in motion, and to give them a fearful and over- 
powering influence. France had had her wars of religion, and her whole 
population had been thoroughly stirred up on the occasion : cruelties and 
enormities of the blackest dye were committed by both Catholics and 
Huguenots. It ought not, however, to be forgotten, that refinements of 
barbarity exercised by royal command were, in more instances than one, 
exemplars and prototypes of scenes which in after years were thought 
to have had their origin in Jacobinical ingenuity. 

Unfortunately for France, the Huguenots were not allowed to become 
an influential party in the state. Whatever privileges had been con- 
ceded to them, the result of long and arduous struggles on their part, 
were abrogated by the perfidy of Louis XIV. : and they and their indus- 
try and capital were lost to the country, and transferred to foreigners. 
The long wars under Louis XIV. and Louis XV. and an extensive 
foreign commerce furnished food for excitement to the French people ; 
but oppressive taxes — an impoverished treasury — defeats on land and 
ocean — mortified their vanity, and forced them to reflection first, and to 
new means of agitation afterwards. The corruptions of the government, 
the oppressions and poverty of the people, the inquiries and agitating 
spirit of the philosophers, were all conspiring to produce a change, when 
an additional impulse was given by the return of the troops which had 
served in America. Their enthusiasm in favour of liberty, their ardent 
aspirations after the enjoyment of this blessing by Frenchmen, and the 
means by which to attain it, were concentrated, embodied, as it were, in 
the person of the young Lafayette. Lafayette, however, was compelled 
after a time to retire before the demon of destruction, with impiety, 
cruelty, and all the horrors and revolting scenes in its train, which the 
worst features in the Crusades, the fierce intolerance of the wars of the 
Reformation, and the cupidity of piratical avarice, had ever engendered 
and called into action. With the worst vices, human nature, when 
strongly excited, seldom fails, however, to exhibit a contrast (which, 
as on this occasion, produced a lurid brightness) of the greatest virtues. 
When a whole nation is in a state of feverish agitation and the majority 
have been long ignorant and debased, a reaction is the fury of insanity ; 
the many, the mass, for a time must prevail ; and their power will be to 
level and destroy ; and so it was with the French revolution. Excess 
brought weariness — agitation had not ceased ; but a new direction was 



384 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

given to it by a successful soldier ; and France in arms flattered herself 
for a while in the illusion, that, while conquering other nations, she was 
overthrowing old systems, and sanctioning at least the practice of revo- 
lution, though she herself failed to give permanency to its principles. 
But even this time the French people, to the minutest ramification of 
the commonalty, had not only felt the shock of the revolution, but they 
enjoyed tangibly its fruits. Crown and church domains and the pro- 
perty of the nobles had changed owners. From the privileged few it 
had been transferred to the many. Hundreds of thousands of peasants, 
whom the beginning of the revolution found ignorant and enslaved, were 
left at its termination with a knowledge of at least their personal rights, 
and in possession of landed estate. They felt that this was no meta- 
physical abstraction, no governmental illusion ; and it was because they 
felt this, and were well aware how they became landed proprietors, that 
they underwent the more willingly such enormous sacrifices of comfort 
and repose, and often of life, to gratify the ambition of their great leader. 
Whether consul or emperor, they saw in him, like themselves, an inhe- 
ritor of the revolution. When wearied by his interminable wars, they at 
length abandoned him, they never forgot, however, their real position with 
the Bourbons; nor the light in which they were regarded by the returned 
emigrants. It was their continued suspicions and fears from this source, 
which kept them in a state of seldom-ceasing agitation, and which gave 
the leaders of the liberal party and the Bonapartists, who rallied under 
their banner, such a strong hold on their confidence and affections. The 
charter which Louis XVIII. was compelled to grant the French people 
before they would agree to receive him, even supported as he was by 
the bayonets of the allies, guarantied some of the principles of the 
revolution and the possession of property to its actual occupants. To 
attempt, therefore, to annul the provisions of the charter, was not orly 
to curtail freedom of speech and of writing, but to dispossess, at lea ,o 
affirm the after-right of dispossessing of their property the holders ol ae 
national domain and confiscated church and seignoral lands. Entire .nd 
satisfactory security on this point will insure the support of a maj iity 
of the people of France to their government. Wanting this security, no 
ruler, whether king, emperor, or president, can promise himself any per- 
manency of office. 

Every nation has within itself an impelling principle by which it tends 
to progressive change in its social and political condition. Its his- 
tory, like the life of an individual, exhibits it in youth, maturity, and 
decrepitude. At times, it passes through these several stages in a com- 
paratively brief period. In other cases, centuries must elapse before a 
similar course is gone through. The history of one nation is a fallacious 
guide in forming an opinion of the probable career of another. ' .'.''here 
are primitive inherent differences among the races of mankind as fvell as 
among the people of the same race. The African, the Mongolic : Tar- 
tar, and the Caucasian or white race, could not be expected to adopt 
the same forms of social and political organization even under similar 
circumstances of free and unrestrained action. Nor can even two adjoin- 
ing nations be expected to be equally pliant to similar impuh.es and 



"WHAT OF THE TIMES? 385 

theories of government. The true constitutional system has only so far 
been thoroughly adopted by the Anglo-Saxon stock. It is under course 
of trial in France ; it has failed with the Spaniards ; and has never yet 
been fully carried out in G-ermany, that very country from which our 
Saxon ancestors came. It remains for time to show how far the primary 
principles of the rights of man can be carried into full and general ope- 
ration. It would be uncharitable, perhaps unphilosophical, (the terms 
ought to have more frequently the same meaning,) to say that any people 
are incurably unfitted for the possession and enjoyment of their rights. 
But one may say that an education is necessary for enabling them to 
understand the principles which are involved, and to make a suitable 
and practical application of them. And, after all, differences in primi- 
tive or inherent aptitude, the predominance of one order of faculties over 
the others, or acuter sensibilities will give rise to great modifications of first 
principles, and cause no little varieties of ingrafted practices on the ori- 
ginal stock. Constitutional law and representative government will 
receive very difl^erent applications according as it shall be adopted by 
Spaniards, or by G-ermans or Italians. There is not then any patent pro- 
cess by which the social and political ills of every people are to be cured. 
Agitation is necessary, but the precise kind of crisis cannot be foreseen. 
Since the invention of printing and the immense circulation given to the 
opinions and practices of nations and individuals, a new element of agi- 
tation is introduced from without to add to the materials for the same 
end within. The problem becomes consequently of more difficult solu- 
tion, to tell how far a people are agitated by causes inherent in their 
institutions or by the influence of the sentiments of another and neigh- 
bouring people; and next, if a reform be determined on, to know what 
ought to be elicited from their own experience and what borrowed 
fropi their neighbours. The Portuguese have copied the system of a 
lip ■ ^ed monarchy and constitutional government; but as a mere copy, 
an 'jot springing up from among themselves, it turned out to be a dead 
letter. The South Americans have copied our institutions, but having 
had..;}o republican education themselves, they are strangers to the spirit 
of republicanism ; and their resolves are mere holiday declamations, with- 
out the force of law or conviction of right. Are we to infer that these 
people are unfitted for freedom and liberal institutions ? By no means. 
Only, they must agitate yet longer, and work out their belief by the evi- 
dence of their own observation and experience. It is now upwards of 
six centuries since England obtained her Magna Charta. Within the 
last two of these, she has brought one of her kings to the block, and 
banished another, for tyrannical encroachments on the liberties of the 
people; and yet, after all, she is far from the enjoyment of equal laws, 
and h' . not yet realized a fair representative system — despite free dis- 
cussion^ and the most elaborate and continued investigation of the prin- 
ciples :.f?. her constitution and the relative powers of her three estates — 
king, li /.'ds, and commons. Of her injustice to Ireland, and the neces- 
sity of the people of this latter country to agitate, as they are now doing, 
under the guidance of that arch-agitator, O'Connell, one must be con- 
vinced, pn a very superficial glance at the state of things in the British 
;>H 25 



386 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



empire. Ireland has sufficient inherent energy and knowledge of her 
rights, to take a place among nations, as a republic ; and some of these 
days she will do so. 

We have now shown, we believe, that the spirit of agitation, tending 
to change and revolution, has been always active among mankind ; and 
if we measure the future by the past, ever will be. It was signally dis- 
played in the crusades, in knight-errantry and the practices of chivalry; 
in the wars between different nations, and the rivalry between cities and 
provinces of the same nation or people, as among the cities of the Han- 
seatie League, those of the Netherlands and Italy in the middle ages ; 
afterwards, in the wars of the Reformation, in the conquest and settle- 
ment of America, and the partial possession of India by Europeans. 
This spirit, showing itself with peculiar fierceness in England about the 
time of the first Charles, crossed the Atlantic, impelled into existence 
the democracies of these United States, gave rise to the memorable 
incidents of the first French revolution, and, though checked, it never 
was laid, and finally has consummated another, and is now diff"using 
itself through every other civilized land. Spain begins again to feel it — 
this time, however, the wife of a dying king takes on herself the task 
of leading and directing it. Italy is agitated. Italy, which has already 
been the theatre for two great empires — the first of arms — the second 
of religion, arts, and learning. Greece is again, after the slumber of 
more than two thousand years, agitated and called into existence as au 
independent nation ; Grermany, the nursery of philosophy, of all kinds 
of systems, the country of domestic virtues and simple energy of cha- • 
racter, is distracted with the claims and intrigues of her numerous sec- 
tional kings and princes. But her regeneration must take place — as 
will eventually that of Poland — not to independence alone, but to free- 
dom — rational and well understood fi-eedom. It is just as impossible for 
the general as for the individual mind to be stationary, and to exist 
without excitement and agitation, whether for good or for evil. If religion 
and moral and intellectual culture be not sedulously given to a people, 
its energies will take a wrong direction, and display themselves in a fear- 
ful power, destructive finally of itself, and involving neighbouring nations 
in war and revolution. 



DEAREST LOVE, BELIEVE ME. 



Dearest love, believe me, 

Though all else depart, 
Naught shall e'er deceive thee 

In this faithful heart. 
Beauty may be blighted — 

Youth may pass away — 
But the vows we plighted 

Ne'er shall know decay. 

Tempests may assail us 
From aiSiction's coast — 

Fortune's breeze may fail us , 
When we need it most; 



Fairest hopes may perish' — 
Firmest friends may change — 

But the love we cherish 
Nothing shall estrange. 

Dreams of fame and grandeur 

End in bitter tears — 
Love grows only fonder, 

'With the lapse of years ; 
Time, and change, and trouble. 

Weaker ties unbind — 
But the bands redouble 

True affection twined. 



A NIGHT ON THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL. 387 



A NIGHT ON THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL. 

There was a calm lustre in the sky as I surveyed it from the towering 
height on which I stood. The blue expanse was scarcely tarnished with 
a cloud : around and beneath me, all presented the glorious beauties of 
a summer's afternoon. The placid Potomac stretched its glassy arms 
on my left, — before me lay the broad avenue decked with its rows of 
poplars, and presenting a busy assemblage of industrious carters, min- 
gled with the pomp and parade of carriages and other vehicles of pleasure. 
The President's house, with its white walls and majestic appearance, 
enriched the grandeur of the scene ; while on my right, a wide though 
gently undulating plain seemed checkered with a hundred roads. The 
scene was one too rich for description — the spot, sacred as the temple 
of American rights, and fancy led me away to a contemplation of the 
future glory of my country. I felt as if I were overlooking the destinies 
as well as the vast surface of the States. My thoughts roamed until I 
could trace the dawning of the sun upon our shores from the bosom of 
the Atlantic, and follow his course until he sank in the peaceful waters 
of the Pacific. I stood upon the proudest pinnacle the world ever saw — 
the work of hands — but the work of freemen. I could trace the labourer 
who wrought the granite into shape for its construction, until I saw him 
within its walls, pouring forth the eloquence of conscious independence, 
and breathing the fires of exalted patriotism. How long I thus remained 
absorbed in reflection, I know not ; but when I awoke from my revery, 
my companions had left me, and I stood alone upon the dome of the 
Capitol ! I attempted to descend, but what was my astonishment when 
I discovered that the entrance had been closed ! I found no fault with 
the keeper : he had been more than kind in his attentions, and probably 
thought I had descended with my company. I shouted, but all in vain. 
Bewildered, I looked around the fearful height, waving my handkerchief 
in hopes of being seen; but if my signal was observed, it was looked 
upon only as a freak of playfulness. " Great God !" I involuntarily 
exclaimed, " and must I remain here all night ?'' 

The sun was just setting in the west, and for a moment diverted my 
thoughts from the situation in which I was placed ; but they returned, 
in a paroxysm of agony, as I beheld the gray twilight setting in, and 
the lights that, one by one, broke on my view along the avenue below 
me. What would I not have given to be tracing its quiet pave- 
ment ? A fearful wish came over me — I wished to be floating in the 
air; and it required every mental as well as bodily exertion to prevent 
me from leaping over the railing into eternity. I grasped the iron rail 
that encircled the skylight over the vast rotunda, lest I should accom- 
plish the dreadful purpose, while the cold sweat dropped from my brow 
like a November's rain, and my whole frame shook until I fancied the 
very building tottered beneath me. I dared not look below, but cast 
my eyes upward to the sky; — 'twas garnished with a million of stars, 
and the pale moon shed a dim light around me, as, floating towards the 



388 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

westj slie promised soon to leave me in ntter darkness. I always loved 
to look upon the heavens, and mark the dim globes as they rolled along 
their unknown spheres in the regions of space, but a glance now filled 
me with horror; for I seemed as if, like one of them, I was wavering 
in the mid-air, and the edifice on which I stood was whirling about 
like the fabled palace of Aladdin under the power of the magician's 
lamp. I closed my eyelids in hopes to shut out the appalling vision, but 
it hung upon me like an incubus, and the occasional rattling of carriage- 
wheels below me rushed over my brain like circular traces of fire. In 
vain did I attempt to calm my feelings; they were tumultuous as the 
ocean. Reason was powerless, and at length I feared had forsaken me. 
I doubted in the reality of all around me, and strove to shake it off as 
a horrific dream. Vain effort ! I fancied myself deranged in intellect. 
Terrible fancy ! — I felt that madness held me in its withering grasp, and 
I howled in the torments of the thought. Wild visions floated before 
me ; I fancied myself a monarch, and that I was sitting on my throne, 
weeping over the cares incident to power ; then, again, that I was chained 
to the Promethean rock, with a myriad of vultures flapping their dark 
wings ready to devour me. My thoughts were bewildered, and though 
all my sufferings are indelibly impressed upon my brain, I ivas mad, 
both with terror and with anguish. Anon, I thought myself sailing 
upon the deep blue sea, — the white canvas gracefully bellying to the 
breeze, and the light spray dashing from the vessel's prow like snow- 
flakes whirling in spiral eddies of air. The " stripes and the stars" 
waved resplendently above me. The broad pennant lashed the breeze 
in its vibrations at mast-head, and our sea-boat sported upon the waters 
like a bird. Presently, the heavens lowered, and the ocean boiled around 
us like a whirlpool — the wild blast brought destruction with every gust ; 
then, with one plunge, down went the noble bark in the devouring 
and remorseless tide. I found myself upon a solitary rock, — the waters 
rising around me with inconceivable rapidity. With a faint hope, I 
looked around for relief. There was no sign of deliverance — all was 
dark, tumultuous, and fearful. The wild surge dashed over me, and 
roared dreadfully around ; already had the waves encircled me ; — they 
rose above my breast. I strove, by an effort at swimming, to save my- 
self from being drowned ; but what was my agony when I found myself 
riveted to the rock as firmly as if fettered with chains ? A loud and 
tremendous crash of thunder as it trembled over the city aroused me 
again to a sense of my situation. I had slept; — how long, I know not; 
but, awakened by the warring elements, I still found myself 07i the dome 
of the Capitol! 

All was dark, save a few dim lainps which yet burned in the avenue, 
but they told me it was not more than midnight. It was four long hours 
still ere I could hope for day, and the lightning, which now became vivid, 
showed thick and dark masses of clouds, as they rolled up the west, 
charged with thunders, which boomed around me, and made the very 
Capitol tremble, as they reverberated along the plain and over the deep. 
Then came the quick rush of the wind, followed by pattering drops of 
raiji, which succeeded one another, thicker and faster, until the verj 



A NIGHT ON THE DOME OP THE CAPITOL. 389 

gates of heaven seemed opened upon me. Chaos seemed again to have 
asserted its supremacy, so deep and convulsive was the elemental strife. 
But now my feelings had become more composed, and I looked upon the 
tumult, and listened to the pattering of the rain, with a firmness that at 
that moment surprised me, and I laughed at the terrors my imagination 
had so lately conjured up. I even felt pleasure in viewing the sublimity 
of the scene, which opened upon my eyes at every flash in fairy bright- 
ness, heightened in its eifects by the impenetrable darkness which suc- 
ceeded. By and by the storm passed away ; the faint, but distant 
mutterings of thunder soon ceased to fall upon the ear. Then again 
all was darh ! — not one twinkling lamp could be seen afar. The heavens 
themselves were hid, and one thick veil of gloom was thrown over every 
object far and near. Darkness ! you revived my terrors. I had 
read Byron's " Darkness," and its memory drew me within its horrific 
sphere. All, too, was silent as the grave ; not a carriage-wheel disturbed 
the awful stillness — not a breath of air ; and it was not without an effort 
that I spoke aloud to be certain that sound had not forsaken the universe. 
I spoke — but the words fell from my lips dead upon the air, and sounded 
in my ears, an instant, like the sepulchral whisperings of spirits. I 
drummed with my fingers on the railing, till sound seemed to cease with 
the motion, and motion seemed but mockery of silence; there was not 
a clock to toll the wasting of Time. Oh that the hours had been marked 
by a bell, and the terrible interval between them I could have passed 
away in hopes of a recurrence of sound. But not a rustling leaf — not a 
cricket disturbed the lone gloomy silence. I felt as if Eternity had 
begun its reign, and I was stationed in my allotted corner of endless 
duration. It appeared as if I were in the centre of darkness, where 
light was never again doomed to penetrate, and the soul-sickening 
reflection clung around my heart as firmly as the fibres of which it is 
composed. Long, eager, and anxiously did I look around me to catch 
the first dawning of light. I could have wept with joy to behold a 
single star — a single spark, though it were but the transient light of the 
fire-fly ; hut I saiv nothing J Ages of time appeared to have rolled away, 
and yet day came not; — I feared ''the sun had set to rise no more." 
Fluttering and incoherent thoughts of death came over my brain. " Was 
I in my grave ?" I mentally inquired ; " can this be death ? Can these 
fancies be the dreamings of nothingness ?" I struggled to burst the 
coffin in which I now fancied myself enclosed ; but nothing but the thin 
air — the waste of darkness resisted my exertions. I felt my dress, as if 
to prove whether I were really encircled in a shroud. Strange thought ! 
— I could not satisfy myself. I doubted of my capacity to move; motion 
itself seemed phantasy, and the surrounding silence and gloom betokened 
the dread quiet of the grave ! I strove to remember the cause of my 
dissolution — the attendance of friends — the last moment of existence ; — 
but memory was like the dim shades of night, and the mist was impe- 
netrable. Oblivion had stretched her pall over me. Heaven and earth 
seemed to have passed away — memory was dead — recollection had forsaken 
me — I knew not even where I then was. I was lost — an atom in space 
— a something in interminable nothingness. 
2h3 



390 PIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

At lengtli the thick clouds began to disperse. A faint, feeble light 
seemed to rise in the east. Judge, ye that can, how intensely I watched 
it ; yet I trembled lest it should prove a delusion. God ! it loas not. 
In a moment of time the thick vapours burst asunder, and displayed 
the full beauties of the 3Iorning Star ! How my heart throbbed ! I 
was in a delirium of delight. Oblivion ! Darkness ! Silence ! Death ! 
all had fled before the light of that blazing planet. The aged one 
returning to the scenes of his childhood, when he beholds the beloved 
spot after an absence of threescore years — the mariner touching the 
haven of all his hopes, after a voyage of despairing — the Christian under 
the first dawning of the smiles of his Creator, — oh, these only, or such 
as these, can feel the ecstasy of my bliss. That star shone upon me like a 
dawning of hope over the brows of the despairing. 

But still I was on the dome of the Capitol. There was even pleasure 
in the thought that I was yet there. How anxiously I watched that star 
as I stretched myself along the pavement on the dome ! How fearful 
seemed each passing vapour that threatened to obscure it ; but it was 
not obscured. There it shone, brighter than I had ever before seen it. 
It lit up the gay park beneath me, and shed its pure rays over the east 
.branch of the Potomac, till its waters sparkled like diamonds. Joy, 
joy — it was a world to give me light ;--it was not a taper — nor a beacon 
light, — it was a pure bright world ! and it shone on till the great god 
of day burst upon me in a blaze of fire. Then it was lost, and I wept 
when I could see it no more. But the glories of that rising sun, as it 
threw its red reflection over every object around and beneath me, it is 
not in my power to describe. The broad shadow of the building on 
which I stood seemed girt with liquid fire ; and the long, but half- 
finished mall presented a crimson instead of verdant hue. 

Soon, however, the busy hum of the industrious fell upon my ears, 
and my attention was riveted with admiration of the liliputian figures 
moving along the avenue to their daily avocations. Every movement 
below inspired me with the thought that my hour of deliverance was 
near at hand. The tumult of my feelings had subsided ; a sweet calm 
came over me ; but hour after hour passed on, and I was not relieved. 
Impatience at length became anxiety — anxiety, agony; when I recol- 
lected the appalling fact, that, unless strangers should wish to visit the 
dome, it was not probable that the keeper would ascend to my relief. 

The day was fast waning away, hunger and thirst asserted their claims, 
but they were swallowed up in the bewildering thought that another 
night might pass away, and find me a tenant of the terrific summit on 
which I stood. I could distinguish, occasionally, some admiring finger 
below me, pointing, as if in envy of my " pride of place ;" but gazers 
a;nd groups passed on, and their momentary admiration of my state 
seemed but mockery of my situation. My agony became intense; I 
looked around in hopes of finding that a descent was possible ; there 
was no possibility, and I again gave myself up to despair. At length 
I heard voices, — visitors were ascending ; my heart sprang to my throat, 
and I felt as if respiration was leaving me. The entrance-door was 
opened ; and with the wildness of a maniac, I rushed past the astonished 



INDIANS. — ENJOYMENT OF LIFE. 391 

keeper, and those he was conducting to the dizzy height. He called — 
hut I stopped not ; it seemed as if fiends were following to retard my 
escape. I reached the pavement, and rushed onward like one let loose 
from Bedlam. I hurried to my hotel; I spoke to no one, though my 
wildness was evidently observed; but hurrying to my room, locked the 
door, threw myself upon my bed, and returned sincere thanks to my 
Maker, that I was once again master of my actions. Several years have 
rolled by since the occurrence, but I shall never forget that / passed a 
night on the dome of the Capitol. 



INDIANS. 

No two races on the face of the earth ever differed more than the In- 
dians of North and South America. The former are among the most 
intractable of the human species ; the latter, except in their sacrifice of 
human victims to their gods, appear to have been the most mild, indo- 
lent, and easy-tempered of all mankind. The Spanish writers, one and 
all, with the exception of Las Casas, represented them as the most stupid 
and unenlightened beings in existence, but one remove from the animals 
of the field. Don Antonio de UUoa, after indulging himself in a variety 
of invectives against this harmless race, proceeds to give the following 
picture, which, it will be observed, exactly describes a nation of philoso- 
phers : — " Nothing," he says, " disturbs the tranquillity of their souls, 
equally insensible to disasters and prosperity. Though half-naked, they 
are as contented as a monarch on his splendid throne ; riches do not 
elate them in the smallest degree, and the authority of dignities, to which 
they are permitted to aspire, is one so little the object of their ambition, 
that an Indian will receive with the same indifference the office of a 
judge or that of a hangman, if deprived of the former, and appointed 
to the latter. Nothing can move or change them. Interest has no 
power over them ; and they often refuse to perform a small service for 
a sum of money, pointing to their mouths and saying they are not 
hungry. Fear makes no impression on them, respect as little." 



ENJOYMENT OF LIFE. 

How small a portion of our life it is that we enjoy! In youth we 
are looking forward to things that are to come ; in old age we are look- 
ing backward to things that are gone past ; in manhood, although we 
appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even 
that is too often absorbed in vague determination to be vastly happy on 
some future day when we have time. When young we trust ourselves 
too much, and we trust too little when old. Rashness is the error of 
youth, timid caution of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two 
extremes; the ripe, the fertile season of action when alone we can hope 
to find the head to contrive united with the hand to execute. 



392 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE ALPINE HOKN. 



The following passage has Induced more than one poetical fancy to pour forth its effusions :— 
When the last rays of the sun gild the summit of the Alps, the shepherd who lives on the highest peak 
of the mountains takes his horn, and cries with a loud voice, " Praised be the Lord !" As soon as the neigh- 
bouring shepherds hear him, they leave their huts and repeat the words. 



The sunbeams tinge your icy brows, ye glorious 

Alpine heights. 
And quiver on your pathless snows with many tinted 

lights, 
A halo crowns the glowing west, where sinks the 

setting sun. 
The horn proclaims the hour of rest. The shepherd's 

work is done. 

"Praised be the Lord!" The anthem swells on 

many a grateful tongue, 
And echo, from her mountain cells, "repeats the 

praises sung;" 
The Alpine shepherd winds his horn : " Praised be 

the Lord on high ! " 
Prom heart to heart the theme is borne in thrilling 

harmony. 

Mother! the babe within your arms, whose fever'd 

eye is dim, 
May smile away your fond alarms ! if you will- trust 

in Him ! 
"Praise ye the Lord" with tremor'd voice, but with 

confiding heart; 
Your anxious soul may yet rejoice— your sorrows 

may depart. 

Child ! by a parent's dying bed, dost thou in anguish 

pine? 
Eemember who has truly said, "The fatherless are 

mine !" 



Arise and echo back the sound, " Praise ye the Lord 

above !" 
In him the orphan still hath found a father full of 

love. 

"Praise ye the Lord," poor widow'd one, whose in- 
ward wounds axe deep. 

Praise him in faith's confiding tone — you too may 
cease to weep; 

Arise and hear the grateful sound ! repeat the holy 
strain ! 

It hath a balm for every wound, a charm for every 
pain! 

From Alps to Alps the notes are heard, through each 

resounding vale, 
In cadence sweet, the strain is pour'd upon the 

evening gale ; 
When slumber comes in holy peace to soothe each 

boding fear, 
And whisper, "Let your troubles cease, the Lord of 

love is near." 

How sweetly calm each lowly home within that icy 

realm ! 
No anguish to their souls can come ! no sorrows 

overwhelm ! 
" Praised be the Lord !" the Alpine horu resounds 

o'er dale and hill. 
Prom heart to heart its notes are borne, where God 

is worshipp'd still. 



ELIJAH'S INTERVIEW. 



BY THOMAS CAMPBELL. 



God not in the whirlwind, nor in the thunder, nor in the flame, but in the still small voice. 



On Horeb's rock the prophet stood — 

The Lord before him past; 
A hurricane in augry mood 

Swept by him strong and fast ; 
The forest fell before its force. 
The rocks were shiver'd in its course, 

God was not in the blast ; 
'Twas but the whirlwind of his breath. 
Announcing danger, wreck, and death. 

It ceased. The air grew mute— a cloud 

Ciime, muflSing up the sun. 
When, through the mountain, deep and loud. 

An earthquake thunder'd on ; 
The affrighted eagle sprang in air. 
The wolf ran howling from his lair — 
■ God was not in the storm ; 
'Twas but the rolling of his car. 
The trampling of his ste«ds from far. 



'Twas still again — and nature stood 

And calm'd her ruffled frame ; 
When swift from heaven a fiery flood 

To earth devouring came, 
Down to the depths the ocean fled, — 
The sickening sun look'd wan and dead; 

Yet God fill'd not the flame ; 
'Twas but the terror of His eye 
That lighten'd through the troubled sky. 

At last a voice, all still and small. 

Rose sweetly on the ear ; 
Yet rose so shrill and clear, that all 

In heaven and earth might hear; 
It spoke of peace, it spoke of love. 
It spoke as angels speak above ; 

And God himself was there; 
For, oh ! it was a Father's voice. 
That bade the trembling heart rejoice. 



THE VANITY OF PRIDE. 393 



THE VANITY OF PRIDE. 

BT THE MILFOKD BAKD. 

Why all tliis toil for triumphs of an hour? 

What though we wade in wealth, or soar in fame, 

Earth's highest station ends in, " here he lies ;" 

And " dust to dust" concludes her noblest song. — Dr. Young. 

Pride may be considered one of the strongest passions or emotions 
of the human mind ; but we more frequently see it united with igno- 
rance than with sense. There is a portion of vanity and pride necessary 
to the preservation of the human character ; but when it is carried to 
an extent beyond that medium, it becomes disgusting in the sight of 
modesty and humility, and never fails to render the possessor contempt- 
ible in the eyes of the chaste and uncorrupted. Adversity is necessary 
to the state of man, to prevent that redundance of pompous independ- 
ence, and to reduce that plethora of the soul, by which he forgets the 
true source from whence his blessings flow. Prosperity continued, soon 
wraps him up in his own conscious greatness, and he disdains the humble 
avocation of offering up thanks to that Being who has strewed his path 
with plentiful abundance, and given him the means by which he may 
be happy. 

What is man ? Is he a being of celestial origin, and are the destinies 
of time and eternity in his own hands ? Did he command creation to 
be framed from nothing, and did he say, " Let there be light," which 
was immediately obeyed ? Did he snatch that flaming sphere, the sun, 
from the dark caverns of chaos, and hurl it, with ponderous arm, to be 
fixed for ages in the vast wilderness of the universe ? I say, did he bid 
order and regularity pervade the immensity of space, and did he form 
those immutable laws which everywhere exist throughout the vast pro- 
found of nature's arcana? No, he did not. So far from having the 
sceptre of command in his own hands, he was formed after the great 
fabric of the universe was framed. He has but one circumstance con- 
nected with his formation of which he may boast, which is that he was 
made in the image of his great Architect, the Sovereign of the Uni- 
verse. Man is but a worm. He is superior to the different orders and 
genera which surround him in point of intellect, but like them he falls 
by the winter of age, by casualties, by disease, and by many other 
frailties incident to animal matter. He is seen no more upon the earth. 
Scarcely has he embarked upon the tempestuous waves of time, before 
the current turns from the course which he was pursuing, and finally 
lands him, with all his boasted greatness, on the unknown shore of an 
awful eternity. From the moment he makes his entrance on the stage 
of action, he is gradually undergoing the process of decay, and hastening 
along, without perceiving his rapidity, to a final dissolution. The par- 
ticles of nature, or the atomic portions of animal matter, are continually 
changing, and the same flesh which covers his bones to-day will, in the 
course of a few years, be entirely carried away by the astonishing pro- 



394. FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

cess of nature, and be imperceptibly replaced by a new formation. 
Thus, be is ever cbanging, until the final scene of life is closed, when 
he is given up a prey to the insects of the earth, and there to be trans- 
formed, and his semblance lost in the clods of the valley. How hu- 
miliating the thought ! Shall man then presume to be proud of that 
body which is destined to be food of loathsome worms ? Surely not ! 
He is but a traveller on this terraqueous ball, and already are the shades 
of evening beginning to gather around him, and the dark mantle of 
night will envelope the torch of day, upon which he is delighted to 
gaze ! It is the night of death ! Soon vsdll he cease to behold the daz- 
zling forms of youth dance in festivity around him, and soon will he 
cease to hear the sweet melody of music, or the song of the warbler in 
the solitary grove. Scenes which delight, and scenes which inspire, will 
be shut out from his vision for ever. Nor is it hoary age alone which 
is doomed to this melancholy catastrophe. The tender flower of youth 
is often cut down by the keen-edged scythe of time, and laid in the cold 
arms of death. No age, sex, or condition is exempt, but all alike are 
levelled in the dust. Let us approach yon wide repository of the dead, 
and seek there for distinction. There is the tomb of the ambitious man, 
whose aspiring soul once plunged a nation in wo, and whose name is 
written in human blood upon the tablet of remembrance, handed down 
to posterity ! But behold, here he lies in his own insignificance. Here 
is the grave of the proud man, who considered himself superior to his 
fellow mortals, and looked down with degrading contempt upon those 
who considered themselves equal by the ties of nature. What is pre- 
sented now ? Let us wrench the firm portals which lock him from our 
sight, and search after the difierence between him and the pauper at his 
side. Loj it is done ! Ah me ! what an appalling spectacle his remains 
present to the astonished sight ! A ghastly skeleton is all that is- left, 
and even that cannot be recognised to have belonged to so boastful a 
being. See, his bones are beginning to crumbk into dust, and then 
where will be the proof that he ever existed on the earth? None, none 
will then be found. He will have returned to his mother earth, and his 
pride be all forgotten. The clownish ploughman will pass by his grave 
unconscious. of his greatness, and whistle his lullaby at the evening hour. 
A short space is allotted to his relics in this solitary ground, and the 
same circumference is given to the beggar who slumbers at his side. 
Miserable thought to the proud man, but, alas! he cannot deny it. 
There in his sight sleeps the skull which once was filled with as many 
Utopian dreams as that which gazes with vacant stare upon it. Heart- 
rending idea to the proud man ! He there views the state to which his 
own frame must be subjected, which he now thinks is too good almost 
to tread the earth beneath him. Thus sleeps great Caesar, and thus 
slumbers Tarquin the proud. Their pride could not retrieve their fall, 
and their boasted superiority could not escape the yawning jaws of the 
grave. Death is no respecter of persons, but devours, without remorse, 
his millions at one meal, and slays youth, beauty, pi-ide, and grandeur, 
nor casts a single glance on his indiscriminate choice. What rivers of 
briny tears have swept their course from the eyes of relatives, for the 



JORDAN. 895 

loss of their dearest friends. Pride was carried away in the overwhelm- 
ing deluge, and its brother ambition sank at its side. There is not a 
single day swallowed np in the vortex of time that does not carry with 
it to the vast labyrinth of eternity the lives of about eighty thousand 
of the human family. Where is pride in this deathly famine ? Alas ! 
it is destined to fill the famished maw of death. The brilliant eye, the 
blooming cheek, and the blushing lips of beauty, before whom the great 
and the grand have bowed down in adoration, are all destined to perish 
in the gloom of the grave. How strong is the admonition to improve 
the mind, and prepare it for the enjoyment of supernal felicity, instead 
of lavishing on the frail body of dust the gaudy trappings of earthly 
vanity, which vanishes into nothing the moment that death lays his cold 
hand on the warm brow of beauty ! Thus we see that pride is unbe- 
coming such frail mortals, and when life comes to a conclusion, we are 
convinced of its vanity. Let not the proud critic say, as Voltaire said 
of Rousseau, that I give virtue in words, and vice in deeds ; for his own 
reason will teach him that I write the truth, unvarnished with sophistry, 
without the embellishments of false imagery, and unpolluted by the 
golden gloss of fascinating fiction. Go ask the grave — go ask the silent 
slumberer wrapped in his pale cold shroud — go ask the mighty dead who 
once swayed the sceptre of a world, and at whose nod the millions of 
mankind trembled, and they shall tell, as with the voice of inspiration, 
as with a voice of thunder, the vanity and the insignificance of all human 
pride. 



JORDAN. 

The Jordan, the celebrated river of Palestine, the only considerable 
one in the country, rises in Mount Hermon, passes through lakes Mer- 
mon and Genesareth ; then flowing almost due south, through an exten- 
sive plain, till^ passing to the east of Jericho, it flows into the Dead Sea. 
Near Jericho, it is deep and very rapid, wider than the Tiber at Rome. 
Its length is about 150 miles. The banks are steep, about fifteen feet high; 
so that it is difficult to bathe in it ; which, however, curiosity or super- 
stition impels almost every pilgrim to do ; some vainly imagining it 
cleanses them from all sin. 

^' I had surveyed," says Chateaubriand, " the great rivers of America, 
with that pleasure which solitude and nature impart ', I had visited .the 
Tiber with enthusiasm, and sought with the same interest the Eurotas 
and Cephissus ; but I cannot express what I felt at the sight of the Joi'- 
dan. Not only did this river remind me of a renowned antiquity, and 
one of the most celebrated names that the most exquisite poetry ever 
confided to the memory of man ; but its shores likewise presented to my 
view the theatre of the miracles of my religion. Judea is the only 
country in the world that revives in the traveller the memory of human 
affairs and of celestial things, and which, by this combination, pi-oduces 
in the soul a feeling which no other region is capable of exciting." — 
Worcester s Sketches. 



396 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



AMERICAN AND BRITISH OFFICERS. 

There are few that hear of the achievements of distinguished men with- 
out forming some idea of their persons and features, and it is always 
pleasing to know whether the reality answers to the idea. 

Wailiingion has been described so often that his whole appearance 
must be familiar from our infancy. A person six feet two inches in sta- 
ture, expanded, muscular, of elegant proportions, and unusually graceful 
in all his movements : his head moulded somewhat on the model of the 
Grrecian antique ; features sufficiently prominent for strength or comeli- 
ness — a Roman nose and large blue eyes ; deeply thoughtful, rather than 
lively. With these attributes, the appearance of Washington was strik- 
ing and august. A fine complexion being superadded, he was accounted, 
when young, one of the handsomest of men. But his majesty consisted 
in the expression of his countenance, much more than in his comely fea- 
tures, his lofty person, or his dignified deportment. It was the emanation 
of his great spirit through the tenement it occupied. 

3Iajor- General Greene, in person, was rather corpulent and above the 
common size ; his complexion was fair and florid ; his countenance serene 
and mild, indicating a goodness which seemed to shade and soften the fire 
and greatness of its expression. His health was delicate, but preserved 
by temperance and regularity. 

General Lafayette was one of the finest-looking men in the army, not- 
withstanding his deep-red hair, which then, as now, was rather in disre- 
pute. His forehead was fine, though receding; his eyes, clear and hazel; 
his mouth and chin delicately formed, and exhibiting beauty rather than 
strength. The expression of his countenance was strongly indicative of 
the generous and gallant spirit which animated him, mingling with some- 
thing of the pride of conscious manliness. His mien was noble, his 
manners frank and amiable, and his movements light and graceful. He 
wore his hair plain, and never complied so far with the fashion of the 
times as to powder. 

General Wayne was about the middle size, with a fine ruddy counte- 
nance, commanding port, with an eagle eye. His looks corresponded 
well with his character ; indicating a soul noble, ardent, and dai'ing. At 
this time, he was about thirty-two years of age; a period of life which, 
perhaps as much as any other, blends the graces of youth with the ma- 
jesty of manhood. In his intercourse with his officers and men, he was 
affable and agreeable, and had the ai't of communicating to their bosoms 
the gallant and chivalrous spirit which glowed in his own. 

General Sullivan was a man of short stature, well formed and active ; 
his complexion dark— his nose prominent — his eyes black and piercing, 
and his face altogether agreeable and well-formed. 

Lo7-d Stei'Ung was short and thick-set; somewhat pursy and corpu- 
lent. His face was red, and looked as though coloured by brandy 
rather than sunburnt, and his appearance in no manner either military 
or commanding. 



AMERICAN AND BRITISH OFFICERS. 397 

Colonel Morfian was stout and active, sis feet in height, not too much 
encumbered with flesh, and exactly fitted for the toils and pomp of war. 
The features of his face were strong and manly, and his brow thought- 
ful. His manners plain and decorous, neither insinuating nor repulsive ; 
his conversation grave, sententious and considerate, unadorned and 
uncaptivating. 

Colonel Hamilton is thus described by Mr. Delaplaine : " Although in 
person below the middle stature, and somewhat deficient in elegance of 
figure, Hamilton possessed a very striking and manly appearance. By 
the most superficial observers, he could never be regarded as a common 
individual. His head was large, formed on the finest model, resembling 
somewhat the Grecian antique. His forehead was spacious and elevated ; 
his nose projecting, but inclined to the aquiline; his eyes gi'ay, keen at 
all times, and when animated by debate, intolerably piercing, and his 
mouth and chin well-proportioned and handsome. These two latter, 
although his strongest, were his most pleasing features; yet the form 
of his mouth was expressive of eloquence, more especially of persuasion. 
He was remarkable for a deep depression between his nose and forehead, 
and a contraction of his brows, which gave to the upper part of his coun- 
tenance an air of sternness. The lower part was an emblem of mildness 
and ingenuity." 

Major Lee, one of the most vigilant and active partisan officers in the 
American army, was short in stature, and of light make, but agile and 
active. His face was small and freckled; his looks eager and sprightly. 
He was then quite young, and his appearance was even more youthful 
than his years. 

Sir William Howe, the British general, was a fine figure, full six feet 
high, and admirably well-proportioned. In person, he a good deal resem- 
bled Washington, and at a little distance might have been easily mis- 
taken for the American general ; but his features, though good, were 
more pointed, and the expression of his countenance was less benignant. 
His manners were polished, graceful, and dignified. 

Sir Henry Clinton was short and fat, with a full face, prominent nose, 
and animated intelligent countenance. In his manners, he was polite and 
courtly, but more formal and distant than Howe, and in his intercourse 
with his officers was rather punctilious, and not inclined to intimacy. 

General MaxiveU was about the common size, without any thing pecu- 
liar, either in features or the expression of his face. He was a man of 
merit, though of obscure origin. His manner was not conciliatory, and 
it was his misfortune to be often at variance with his officers. 



Ignorance draws a thick, dark curtain before our eyes; we hear the 
noises behind the veil, and see the strange gleams of light reflected on 
the stage, and, unable to account for the one or the other, we fall pros- 
trate in terror, when the lifting of the curtain would only invite us to 
admire. 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



KBVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTE. 

It was a fine Sabbath morning in the year 1777, that the inhabitants 
of a little parish in the State of Vermont, and on the borders of New 
Hampshire, assembled in their accustomed place of worship. The cares 
and turmoils of that fearful and long-to-be-remembered summer had im- 
printed an unusually serious look upon the rough, though not unpleasing 
countenances of the male members of that little congregation. The rigid 
features relaxed, however, as they entered that hallowed place, and felt 
the genial influence of a summer's sun, whose rays illuminated the sanc- 
tuary and played upon the desk, and upon the fine, open countenance 
of him who ministered there. He was a venerable man, and his whitened 
locks and tottering frame evidenced that he had numbered his threescore 
and ten years. Opening the sacred volume, the minister of Christ was 
about to commence the services of the morning, when a messenger, 
almost breathless, rushed into the church and exclaimed, '•'■ The enemy 
are marching upon our western counties !" The aged soldier of the cross 
slowly looked around upon his little band, and announced the text : '' He 
who hath a garment, let him sell it and buy a sword.'' After a few pre- 
liminary and patriotic remarks, he added, in substance, as follows : "Go 
up, my friends, I beseech you, to the help of your neighbours against 
the mighty. Advance into the field of battle, for G-od will muster the 
hosts of war. Religion is too much interested in the success of this day 
not to lend your influence. As for myself, age sits heavily upon me, 
and I cannot go with you; neither have I representatives of my family 
to send. My daughters (pointing at the Scime time to the pew where 
sat his aged consort and his two daughters, the only remnants of his 
family) cannot draw the sword nor handle the musket in defence of their 
country ; but they can do something — they can use the hoe — so that the 
toil-worn soldier, when he returns from the field of battle, may not suf- 
fer for the want of the necessaries of life." The venerable pastor bowed 
his head in devotion, and in prayer gave further flow to his deep emo- 
tions. When he again looked round, his audience were gone. One by 
one they had silently left the house of God, and ere the sun had that 
day set, the male inhabitants of that little parish, who were able to bear 
arms, were far on their way to meet the enemies of their country on the 
field of Bennington. 

The sea-elephant, when lying on the shore, and threatened with death, 
will often make no eff"ort to escape into the water, but lie still and shed 
tears, only raising his head to look at the assailant, and will wait with 
composure the club or lance which is to take his life. In close contact 
evei'y human efl"ort would be of little avail for the destruction of this ani- 
mal, unwieldy as it is, were it to rush forward and exert the power of 
its jaws; for this, indeed, is so enormous, that in the agony of death, 
stones are ground to powder within its teeth. — WeddeVs Voyage towards 
the South Pole, 



MATERNAL AFFECTION. 399 



MATERNAL AFFECTION. 

The chains of friendship may be joined together by years of unshrink- 
ing experience, and the ties of natural love be tested by the strong gales 
of adversity ; yet, when contrasted with that self-existent, all-enduring 
emotion of a mother's love, they, with all other mortal affections, shrink 
into comparative insignificance before the fervent devotion of its impe- 
rishable features. 

The instant one trembling respiration upheaves the tender bosom of 
her child, and the glad expression of life flits across its tiny countenance 
— the moment one infantile accent falls from its little lips, breathing the 
primal language of young nature, and seeming already to say. Mother ! 
Mother ! from that moment of exalted felicity or entailed sorrow, an 
everlasting feeling leaps into the bosom of the parent, expands with the 
growth of her child, and increases with its strength. 

The immutable fidelity and soul-subduing tenderness of a mother's affec- 
tion, as we see it in our recollections of childhood and in our dreams of 
adolescence, and as we behold it smoothing away the thorns of life in our 
own rising offspring, is like a divine feeling which has been sent from 
Heaven, to soften human nature, and prove that it yet has an afiinity to 
things above the earth. Trace a mother's regard from the pillow of 
infancy, her own faithful bosom, to the death-couch of her child, when 
sorrow and sickness surround it, and you will find her unchangeable and 
unchanged. 

Other affections may be founded upon passion, may wither away to 
nothing as time travels down to oblivion — friendships may decay and 
youthful loves be superseded by infatuation, but this one feeling predo- 
minates to the latest breathings of existence, knowing no shadow, seeing 
no blight. 

Who that has seen an anxious mother watching over the cradle of her 
sick or slumbering child, fanning the flies from its features, and marking 
with most intense interest the faintest change of its countenance— who, 
I ask, that has seen the fluctuating expression of that parent's sleepless 
eye, can hesitate in declaring that the emotion which prompts her actions, 
has no parallel in the bosoms of mankind. Nights of unmurmuring 
watchfulness, days of unwearied fatigue, and a lifetime of numberless 
deprivations, will all be patiently borne by a mother, if her child but 
reaps the benefit of such unearthly weariness and trial. Oh ! that love 
cannot be less than a relic of paradise, a pure and unhallowed perception 
coming from the treasury of woman's soul, a beacon light to her offspring 
in the dark days of misfortune, when all other consolations have sunk back 
into chaos. Yea, when our youthful friends and the school companions 
of childhood have forsaken us ; when shame and poverty have descended 
heavily and witheringly upon our names and fortunes ; and even when 
a father's voice has exclaimed, " Away ! I know you not," a mother's 
love, like an imperishable sun, cannot go out ; its nature is co-essential 
with her life, and one is extinguished only with the other. Her pathetic 



400 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

tongue will say, " Thou art my child ; and though the hard-hearted world 
may spurn thee ; though thou art friendless and covered with shame, 
thy mother cannot forget the artless prattling of thine infancy ; cannot 
drown the remembrances of thj^ childish years, in the dark waves of 
iniquity which have flowed around thy later ones." She will still hope 
that the day of repentance is approaching ; still believe that earthly 
misfortunes have led her oflPspring from the paths of virtue, and fervently 
pray that a reformation may speedily take place, to obliterate the sinful 
doings of her child. In a mother's love there is no insincerity ; there 
are no modulations by fortune, but it lives and is nourished as intensely 
in the rural habitation of a peasant as among the noble and the great, 
and by the inheritors of a diadem. Its residence is in the centre of her 
heart, from whence it flows through every avenue of feeling, quickening 
with its blessed influence the slightest thoughts and actions. And he 
that would repay all the faithful tenderness of a mother's devoted affection 
with unkindness and ingratitude, 

" is a wretch 
Whom 'twere base flattery to call a coward." 



EXCERPTS. 

The words and desolation of parting are not felt in their full bitterne 
by man. He plunges in business or resorts to amusements ; new see 
attract his notice, new friends solicit his favour, and the smile he at ^;- 
only afi'ects, soon images the real gayety of his heart. But woman, 
and secluded, sits alone and muses on joys that are past ; in every dr* 
of her fancy is blended the image of her lover, and every tear she si 
hallows the remembrance of friendship. She ?nifsi be faithful; ''she 
not choose but weep." 

The cold snows that wrap the frozen earth like the shroud of na. 
are not more unlike the soft dews which sparkle on the bosom oi 
summer rose, than are the feelings of selfish age and generous yo 
The dews and snows both descend from the same skies, yet who i 
trace their similitude ? 

There are riches in reciprocated afi'ection, there is wealth in si Aor 
intellect, which cannot be estimated or transferred, and the posses, r of 
either has a jewel that the man of gold can never purchase. 

Moralists and philosophers have consumed much time in advancing 
arguments to prove that disappointments are not always evils ; b' ^. per- 
haps we might not yield our assent to such self-denying propositio; did 
not daily experience confirm the t>heory. Even the annihilation 
dearest hopes, although fraught with keen agony at the momer 
proves in the end a precious blessing, and well worth the price .^ 

been compelled to pay. ,^. j. 






EPITAPH ON A LADY.— BY BEN JONSON. 

Underneath this stone dnth lie 
As much virtue as could die ; 'iij 

Which when alive did vigour give .■ \'ds 

To as much beauty as could live. , i 



i 



THE DEAD. 401 



THE DEAD. 



How few there are (as has been remarked by a forcible and impressive 
■writer) who read the ordinary list of deaths who know any thing of the 
depth of human feeling, or the intensity of human suffering, which is 
recorded in the simple and brief notices which we read with so much 
carelessness and so coldly in the newspapers. Finding no familiar name 
to arrest attention, or awaken sympathy, we think no more of the matter, 
for what care we for the long midnight vigils of watchful, affectionate 
friendship — the weary, aching head — the aiSicted, despondingheart ? We 
do not feel the pain the languishing sufferer has experienced, and we 
know nothing of the agony which exhausted his frame and wore out his 
weary nature ; nor care we for the spirit which has fled its frail tene- 
ment, and uttered its last, final, gasping farewell. We know nothing 
of the heartbreaking anguish which is felt, or the hot burning tears which 
gush out, in the agony of severed friendship, from bosoms swollen and 
'nirsting with an excess of passionate grief. We know nothing of the 
oitteruess of parting, of the strength of affections which have been torn 
■isunder, of the hopelessness of the first flood of tears, of the depth of 
Stracted suffering, or of the intensity of the afflictions which real 
nds have been called upon to suffer and endure, 
t is a melancholy though instructive consideration, that the tendency 
every thing is to decay ; that the happiest prospects and brightest 
\)ns of future bliss are but delusive fancies, which become extin- 
%ed when they shine out most vividly, and give the strongest evidence 
'.ermanent duration. " Hopes which were angels in their birth," 
ime, from their intimacy and close connection with human frailty 
an 'tiecay, but things of earth ; and thus it is, that those dear objects 
up a which we have lavished most flattering hopes of future happiness 
auf ''-bliss are removed from us before we are conscious of the palsying 
illuoss which quenched the spirit and laid them low. We grieve that they 
are ' len from us so suddenly — that they could not have been spared a 
litt^, '^)nger ; then we could have appreciated their worth, returned their 
mahP'jld kindnesses, and gradually prepared ourselves for that event 
which from its sudden occurrence, unmans our resolutions and prostrates 
us in the dust by the sternness and severity of the blow. There is 
anoty '"-- sad thought, but, nevertheless, a true one — that the more friend- 
shir)S'%'e form, the more attachments we make, the more tender and 
OP ng connections we weave around us and invest ourselves with, in 

CO) '^Id, the more of grief and suffering we shall be called to endure. 

in "viil come when all earthly attachments must be severed, and the 

int d we have been of friends and the more devoted to connections, 

of c'^ agonizing and severe will be the struggle which separates us 
hea us away from among them. It may be that the stoic's life is 

a fat.-. I eventually, of less pain and suffering than that individual 

love, ho possesses more delicate sensibility, and is alive to the 

fvitj- upuises of nature and the finest feelings of the human heart ; 

i 26 



402 riELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

it may be so, but yet his cold enjoyments and benumbing sympathies 
afford him but poor comfort, when most he needs the sympathy, the 
sustaining hand, and upholding arm of ardent and enduring friendship. 
Life would not be worth possessing if this polar star did not illuminate 
its dark paths, and throw around its dreariness some evidence of sympa- 
thetic love for each other; and though separation, when it comes, crush 
the heart and tear asunder its very fibres, yet how eagerly we taste of 
its delicious sweets and exult in the participation of its delirious enjoy- 
ments. 



EEFLECTIONS ON MAERIAaE. 

The leading features in the character of a good woman are mildness, 
complaisance, and equanimity of temper. The man, if he be a worthy 
and provident husband, is immersed in a thousand cares. His mind is 
agitated, his memory loaded, and his body fatigued. He retires from 
the bustle of the world, chagrined perhaps by disappointment, angry at 
insolent and perfidious people, and terrified lest his unavoidable connec- 
tions with such people should make him appear perfidious himself. Is 
this the time for the wife of his bosom, his dearest and most intimate 
friend, to add to his vexations, to increase the fever of an overburdened 
mind, by a contentious tongue or a discontented brow ? Business, in 
its most prosperous state, is full of anxiety and turmoil. Oh ! how dear to 
the memory of man is the wife who clothes her face in smiles, who uses 
gentle expressions, and who makes her lap soft to receive and hush his 
cares to rest. There is not in nature so fascinating an object as a faith- 
ful, tender, and affectionate wife. 



TIME. 

It waits for no man — it travels onward with an even, uninterrupted, 
inexorable step, without accommodating itself to the delays of mortals. 
The restless hours pursue their course — moments press after moments — 
day treads upon day — year rolls after year. Does man loiter? procrasti- 
nate ? Is he listless or indolent ? Behold the days, and months, and 
years, unmindful of his delay, are never sluggish, but march forward in 
silent and solemn procession. Our labours and toils, our ideas and feel- 
ings, may be suspended by sleep — darkness, and silence, and death, may 
reign around us, but time rests not — slumbers never, but presses along, 
and knows no stoppages. We may dam up mighty rivers — stop them 
in journeying to the ocean — press them back to their source; but the 
arrest of time is beyond the power of any human being, besides Omnipo- 
tence. The clock may cease to strike, the bell to toll ; the sun may 
cease to shine, the moon stand still; but the busy hours pass on. The 
months and years must move for ever forward. 



Jackson's victory at new Orleans. 403 



GENERAL JACKSON'S VICTORY AT NEW ORLEANS. 

In the month of December, 1814, fifteen thousand British troops, 
■under Sir Edward Packenham, were landed for the attack of New Orleans. 
The defence of this place was intrusted to General Andrew Jackson, 
whose force was about sis thousand men, chiefly raw militia. Several 
slight skirmishes occurred before the enemy arrived before the city ; 
during this time General Jackson was employed in making prepara- 
tion for his defence. His front was a straight line of one thousand 
yards, defended by upwards of three thousand infantry and artillerists. 
The ditch contained five feet of water, and his front, from having been 
flooded by opening the levees, and by frequent rains, was rendered slip- 
pery and muddy. Eight distinct batteries were judiciously disposed, 
mounting in all twelve guns of diff"erent calibres. On the opposite side 
of the river was a strong battery of fifteen guns. 

At daylight on the morning of the 8th of January, the main body 
of the British, under their commander-in-chief, General Packenham, 
were seen advancing from their encampment to storm the American 
lines. On the preceding evening they had erected a battery within eight 
hundred yards, which now opened a brisk fire to protect their advance. 
The British came on in two columns, the left along the levee on the 
bank of the river, directed against the American right, while their right 
advanced to the swamp, with a view to turn General Jackson's left. The 
country being a perfect level, and the view unobstructed, their march 
was observed from its commencement. They were suffered to approach, 
in silence and unmolested, until within three hundred yards of the lines. 
This period of suspense and expectation was employed by General 
Jackson and his ofiicers in stationing every man at his post, and arrang- 
ing every thing for the decisive event. When the British columns had 
advanced within three hundred yards of the lines, the whole artillery at 
once opened upon them a most deadly fire. Forty pieces of cannon, 
deeply charged with grape, canister, and musket-balls, mowed them 
down by hundreds; at the same time the batteries on the west bank 
opened their fire, while the riflemen, in perfect security behind their 
works, as the British advanced took deliberate aim, and nearly every 
shot took eff"ect. Through this destructive fire, the British left column, 
under the immediate orders of the commander-in-chief, rushed on with 
their fascines and scaling ladders, to the advance bastion on the Ameri- 
can right, and succeeded in mounting the parapet; here, after a close 
conflict with the bayonet, they succeeded in obtaining possession of the 
bastion ; when the battery planted in the rear for its protection opened 
its fire, and drove the British from the ground. On the ximerican left, 
the British attempted to pass the swamp, and gain the rear, but the 
works had been extended as far into the swamp as the ground would 
permit. Some who attempted it sank in the mire and disappeared; 
those behind, seeing the fate of their companions, seasonably retreated 
and gained the hard ground. The assault continued an hour and a 
quarter ; during the whole time the British were exposed to the delibe- 



404 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

rate and destructive fire of the American artillery and musketry, which 
lay in perfect security behind their breastworks of cotton bales, which 
no balls could penetrate. 

At eight o'clock, the British columns drew off in confusion, and re- 
treated behind their works. Flushed with success, the militia were eager 
to pursue the British troops to their intrenchments, and drive them im- 
mediately from the island. A less prudent and accomplished general 
might have been induced to yield to the indiscreet ardour of his troops ; 
but General Jackson understood too well the nature both of his own 
and his enemy's force, to hazard such an attempt. Defeat must inevi- 
tably have attended an assault made by raw militia, upon an intrenched 
camp of British regulars. The defence of New Orleans was the object; 
nothing was to be hazarded which would jeopardize the city. The 
British were suffered to retire behind their works without molestation. 
The result was such as might be expected from the different positions of 
the two armies. General Packenham, near the crest of the glacis, re- 
ceived a ball in his knee. Still continuing to lead on his men, another 
shot pierced his body, and he was carried off the field. Nearly at this 
time, Major-General Gibbs, the second in command, within a few yards 
of the lines, received a mortal wound, and was removed. The third in 
command, Major-General Keane, at the head of his troops near the 
glacis, was severely wounded. The three commanding generals, on mar- 
shalling their troops at five o'clock in the morning, promised them a plen- 
tiful dinner in New Orleans, and gave them hooty and beauty as the 
parole and countersign of the day. Before eight o'clock, the three 
generals were carried off the field, two in the agonies of death, and the 
third entirely disabled; leaving upwards of two thousand of their men, 
dead, dying, and wounded, on the field of battle. 

On the 9th, General Lambert and Admiral Cochrane, with the sur- 
viving ofl&cers of the army, held a council of war, and determined to 
abandon the expedition. To withdraw the troops in the face of a victo- 
rious enemy, would have been difficult and hazardous. To withdraw in 
safety, every appearance of a renewal of the assault was kept up, till the 
night of the 18th, when the whole army moved off in one body, over a 
road which had been previously constructed through a miry slough, in 
which a number of the troops perished by sinking into the mire. On 
the 27th, the whole land and naval forces which remained of this disas- 
trous expedition found themselves on board of their ships, with their 
ranks thinned, their chiefs and many of their companions slain, their 
bodies emaciated by hunger, fatigue and sickness. 



EPITAPH ON A BEAUTIFUL AND VIRTUOUS YOUNa LADY.— BY DRYDEN. 

Sleep soft in dust, wait the Almighty's will, 
Then rise unchanged, and be an angel stiU. 

ON AN INFANT. 
Taught the first duties to obey and love, 
It's gone to act them in the realms above. 



THE FIEST BATTLE NEAR NEW ORLEANS. 405 



THE FIEST BATTLE NEAR NEW ORLEANS. 

A LANDING was made, and the army marched onward to the attack 
in the dead of night. Such a battle then ensued as the annals of 
modern warfare can hardly match ; all order and discipline were lost. 
Each officer, as he was able to collect twenty or thirty men around him, 
advanced into the middle of the enemy, when it was fought, hand to 
hand, bayonet to bayonet, and sword to sword, with the tumult and 
ferocity of one of Homer's combats. 

To give some idea of this extraordinary combat, I shall (says the 
narrator) detail the adventures of a friend of mine, who chanced to 
accompany one of the first parties that set put. Dashing through the 
bivouac, under a heavy discharge from the vessels, his party reached the 
lake, which they forded, and advanced as far as the house where General 
Keane had fixed his head-quarters. The moon had by this time made 
her way through the clouds, and, though only in her first quarters gave 
light enough to permit their seeing, though not distinctly. Having gone 
far enough to the right, the party pushed on to the front, and entered a 
sloping field of stubble, at the upper end of which they could distinguish 
a dark line of men ; but whether they were friends or foes, it was impos- 
sible to determine. Unwilling to fire, lest he should kill any of our 
own people, my friend led on the volunteers whom he had got around 
him, till they reached some pile of reeds, about twenty yards from 
the object of their notice. Here they were saluted by a sharp volley, 
and being now confident that they were enemies, he commanded his 
men to fire. 

But a brother officer, who accompanied him, who was not convinced, 
assured him that they were soldiers of the 95th ; upon which they agreed 
to divide the force ; that he who doubted should remain with one part 
where he was, while my friend with the rest should go around upon the 
flank of this line, and discover certainly to which army it belonged. 

Taking with him about fourteen men, he accordingly moved off to the 
right, when, falling in with some other stragglers, he attached them like- 
wise to his party and advanced. Springing a high rail fence, they came 
down upon the left of those of whom the doubt had existed, and found 
them to be, as my friend had supposed, Americans. Not a moment was 
lost in attacking, but having got unperceived within a few feet of where 
they stood, they discharged their pieces and rushed on to the charge. 
Some soldiers, having lost their bayonets, laid about them with the butt- 
end of their firelocks, while many a sword, which, till to-night, had not 
drank of blood, became in a few minutes crimsoned enough. 

The English and Americans were so mingled, that they scarcely knew 
friends from foes ; and more feats of individual gallantry were performed 
in the course of the night than many campaigns might have afforded. 
We lost more than five hundred men, and the field of battle was dread- 
ful. I have frequently beheld a greater number of dead bodies in as 
small a compass, though these, indeed, were numerous enough ; but wounds 



406 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

more disfiguring or more horrible, I certainly never witnessed. A man 
shot through the head or heart, lies as if he was in a deep slumber^ 
insomuch, that when you gaze upon him, you experience little less than 
pity. But of these, many had met their deaths from bayonet wounds, 
sabre cuts, or heavy blows from the butt-end of muskets ; and the conse- 
quence was, that not only were the wounds exceedingly frightful, but 
the early countenances of the dead exhibited most savage and ghastly 
expressions. Friends and foes lay together in small groups, of four or 
six, nor was it difficult to tell almost the very hand by which some of 
them had fallen. Nay, such had been the deadly closeness of the strife, 
that in one or two places, an English and American soldier might be 
seen with the bayonet of each fastened in the other's body. — From a 
London llagazine. 



LAFAYETTE'S FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 



BY TICKNOR. 



When only between sixteen and seventeen, Lafayette was married to 
the daughter of the Duke D'Ayen, son of the Duke de Noailles, and 
grandson to the great and good Chancellor d'Aguesseau ; and thus his 
condition in life seemed to. be assured to him among the most splendid 
and powerful in the empire. Plis fortune, which had been accumulating 
during a long minority, was vast ; his rank was with the first in Europe ; 
his connections brought him the support of the chief persons in France ; 
and his individual character — the warm, open, and sincere manners, 
which have distinguished him ever since, and given him such singular 
control over the minds of men, made him powerful in the confidence of 
society wherever he went. It seemed, indeed, as if life had nothing 
further to oiFer him, than he could surely obtain by walking in the path 
that was so bright before him. 

It was at this period, however, that his thoughts and feelings were 
first turned towards these thirteen colonies, then in the darkest and most 
doubtful passage of their struggle for independence. He made himself 
acquainted with our agents at Paris, and learned from them the state of 
our aifairs. Nothing could be less tempting to him, whether he sought 
military reputation, or military instruction ; for our army, at that moment 
retreating through New Jersey, and leaving its traces of blood from the 
naked and torn feet of the soldiery, as it hastened onward, was in a state 
too humble to offer either. Our credit, too, in Europe was entirely gone, 
so that the commissioners, (as they were called, without having any 
commission,) to whom Lafayette still persisted in offering his services, 
were obliged, at last, to acknowledge that they could not even give him 
decent means for his conveyance. " Then," said he, " I shall purchase 
and fit out a vessel for myself." He did so. The vessel was prepared 
at Bordeaux, and sent round to one of the nearest ports in Spain, that 
it might be beyond the reach of the French government. In order more 



Lafayette's first visit to America. 407 

effectually to conceal his purposes, he made, just before his emharkation, 
a visit of a few weeks in England, (the only time he was ever there,) 
and was much sought in English society. On his return to France, he 
did not stop at all in the capital, even to see his own family, but hastened, 
with all speed and secrecy, to make good his escape from the country. 
It was not until he was thus on his way to embark, that his romantic 
undertaking began to be known. 

The effect produced in the capital and at court by its publication was 
greater than we should now, perhaps, imagine. Lord Stormont, the 
English ambassador, required the French minister to despatch an order 
for his arrest, not only to Bordeaux, but to the French commanders on 
the West India station, a requisition with which the ministry readily com- 
plied, for they were at that time anxious to preserve a good understand- 
ing with England, and were seriously angry with a young man who had 
thus put in jeopardy the relations of the two countries. In fact, at 
Passage, on the very borders of France and Spain, a letfre de cachet 
overtook him, and he was arrested and carried back to Bordeaux. There, 
of course, his enterprise was near being finally stopped ; but, watching 
his opportunity, and assisted by one or two friends, he disguised himself 
as a courier, with his face blacked and false hair, and rode on, ordering 
post-horses for a carriage, which he had caused to follow him at a suitable 
distance for this very purpose, and thus fairly passed the frontiers of 
the two kingdoms only three or four hours before his pursuers reached 
them. He soon arrived at the port where' his vessel was waiting for 
him. His family, however, still followed him with solicitations to re- 
turn, which he never received ; and the society of the court and capital, 
according to Madame du Deffand's account of it, was in no common state 
of excitement on the occasion. Something of the same sort happened in 
London. " We talk chiefly," says Gribbon, in a letter, dated April 12, 
1777, "of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was here a few weeks ago. 
He is about twenty, with a hundred and thirty thousand livres a year; 
the nephew of Noailles, who is ambassador iiere. He has bought the 
Duke of Kingston's yacht, [a mistake,] and is gone to join the Ameri- 
cans. The court appear to be angry with him." 

Immediately on arriving the second time at Passage, the wind being 
fair, he embarked. The usual course for French vessels attempting to 
trade with the colonies at that period was, to sail for the West Indies, 
and then, coming up along our coast, enter where they could. But this 
course would have exposed Lafayette to the naval commanders of his 
own nation, and he had almost as much reason to dread them as to dread 
British cruisers. When, therefore, they were outside of the Canary 
Islands, Lafayette required his captain to lay their course directly for 
the United States. The captain refused, alleging that, if they should 
be taken by a British force, and carried into Halifax, the French 
government would never reclaim them, and they could hope for nothing 
but a slow death in a dungeon or a prison-ship. This was true, but 
Lafayette knew it before he made the requisition. He therefore insisted, 
until the captain refused in the most positive manner. Lafayette then 
told him that the ship was his own private property, that he had made 



408 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

his own arrangements concerning it, and that if he, the captain, would 
not sail directly for the United States, he should be put in irons, and his 
command given to the next officer. The captain of course submitted, 
and Lafayette gave him a bond for forty thousand francs, in case of any 
accident. They therefore now made sail directly for the southern por- 
tion of the United States, and arrived unmolested at Charleston, South 
Carolina, on the 25th of April, 1777. 

The sensation produced by his appearance in this country was, of 
course, much greater than that produced in Europe by his departure. It 
still stands forth as one of the most prominent and important circum- 
stances in our revolutionary contest ; and, as has often been said by one 
who bore no small part in its trials and success, none but those who 
were then alive can believe what an impulse it gave to the hopes of a 
population almost disheartened by a long series of disasters. And well 
it might ; for it taught us, that, in the first rank of the first nobility in 
Europe, men could still be found, who not only took an interest in our 
struggle, but were willing to share our suiferings; that our obscure 
and almost desperate contest for freedom, in a remote quarter of the 
world, could yet find supporters among those who were the most 
natural and powerful allies of a splendid despotism; that we were the 
objects of a regard and interest throughout the world, which would add 
to our own resources sufficient strength to carry us safely through to 
final success. 



SOLEMNITY OF DEATH. 

There is, perhaps, no feeling of our nature so vague, so complicated, 
so mysterious, as that with which we look upon the cold remains of our 
fellow-mortals. The dignity with which death invests even the meanest 
of his victims, inspires us with an awe no living thing can create. The 
monarch on his throne is less awful than the beggar in his shroud. The 
marble features — the powerless hand — the stiffened limbs — oh ! who can 
contemplate these with feelings that can be defined ? These are the 
mockery of all our hopes and fears, our fondest love, our fellest hate. 
Can it be, that we now shrink with horror from the touch of that hand 
which but yesterday was fondly clasped in our own ? Is that tongue, 
whose accents even now dwell in our ear, for ever chained in the silence 
of death ? These black and heavy eyelids — are they for ever to seal 
up in darkness the eyes whose glance no earthly power could restrain ? 
And the spirit which animated the clay, where is it now ? Is it wrapt 
in bliss or dissolved in wo ? Does it witness our grief, and share our 
sorrows ? Or is the mysterious type that linked it with mortality for 
ever broken ? And the remembrance of earthly scenes — are they indeed 
to the enfranchised spirit as the morning dream, or the dew upon the 
early flower ? Reflections such as these naturally arise in every breast. 
Their influence is felt, though their import cannot always be expressed. 
The principle is the same, however it may differ in its operations. 



THE FOLLY OF WAR. 409 



TEANSPARENCY OF THE SEA. 

There is notliiBg, perhaps, that strikes a northern traveller more 
than the singular transparency of the waters ; and, the farther he pene- 
trates into the Arctic regions, the more forcibly is his attention riveted 
to this fact. At a depth of twenty fathoms, or one hundred and twenty 
feet, the whole surface of the ground is exposed to view. Beds, com- 
posed entirely of shells, sand lightly sprinkled with them, and sub- 
marine forests, present, through the clear medium, new wonders to the 
unaccustomed eye. It is stated by Sir Capel de Brooke, and fully con- 
firmed by my observation in Norway, that sonjetimes on the shores of 
Norland the sea is transparent to a depth of four or five hundred feet ; 
and that when a boat passes over subaqueous mountains, whose summits 
rise above that line, but whose bases are fixed in an unfathomable abyss, 
the visible illusion is so perfect that one who has gradually in tranquil 
progress passed over the surface, ascended wonderingly the rugged steep, 
shrinks back with horror as he crosses the vortex, under an impression 
that he is falling headlong down the precipice. The transparency of 
tropical waters generally, as far as my experience goes, is not comparable 
to that of the sea in these northern latitudes ; though an exception be 
made in favour of the China seas, and a few isolated spots on the Atlantic. 
Every one who has passed over the bank known to sailors as the Saya de 
Malha, ten degi-ees north of the Mauritius, must remember with pleasure 
the worlds of shell and coral which the translucid water exposes to view, 
at a depth of thirty to five-and-thirty fathoms. — Elliott's Letters from 
the North of Europe. 



THE FOLLY OF WAR. 

Oh, how much wiser to refer national disputes to some high umpire- 
to "a congress of nations," for instance — than attempt their settlement 
by the sword ! Such reference would best secure the rights of the 
parties. The weaker could then meet the stronger on more equal terms. 
If Franklin had not seen the folly of war, the following sentence W9uld 
scarcely have come from his pen, eight days after the treaty of peace 
was signed at the close of our Revolution : " May we never see another 
war ! for, in my own opinion, there never was a good war or a bad 
peace." If the Lord Chancellor of England, Mr. Brougham, had not 
regarded war as unwise, would he have said, "■ But my principles — they 
may be derided, they may be unfashionable, but I hope the}^ are spread- 
ing far and wide ; vay principles are summed up in one word, which was 
often uttered by a noble patriot of yours, 'Peace, Peace, Peace.' I abo- 
minate war as unchristian — I hold it the greatest of human crimes — I 
deem it to include all others, violence, blood, rapine, fraud ; every thing 
which can deform the character, alter the nature,, and debase the name 
of man." 

2K 



410 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



" HAVE I COME TO THIS." 



How painful must be the reflections of a young man who has enjoyed 
the privileges of society, moral instructions, and faithful admonition, to 
find himself arrested in his wicked career by the arm of justice, and 
about to receive the penalty of the law for his crimes, while comparing 
his advantages with his present circumstances. Indeed, he may well say, 
'■^ Have I come to this?" 

This is not altogether an imaginary case. It so happened that the 
writer of this was present when several convicts arrived at one of our 
State penitentiaries. Among the number was a young man of about 
the age of twenty-four years, of good appearance, and well dressed. lu 
going into the prison he involuntarily exclaimed, ^' Have I come to tliis?" 
Alas ! too late to avoid the punishment justly due him for his crimes. 
What instructions such a scene and such language are calculated to 
afford to youth ! It should teach them to obey the first command with 
promise ; to honour their parents ; to avoid vain company ; in a word, 
to remember their Creator in the days of their youth. And, to a parent 
who possesses a deep interest in the welfare of a son just entering upon 
the scenes of active life — who knows the evil propensities of the natural 
heart, and the exposedness of youth to the snares of the world — a scene 
like this must occasion a degree of anxious solicitude, lest on some 
future day he may have occasion to hear from that son the melancholy 
reflection, '^ Have I come to this?" 



THE GREEK KEVOLUTION. 

The following is an extract from Mr. Webster's speech in the House 
of Representatives of the United States, January, 1824, on the Greek 
Revolution : — 

It may be asked, What can we do ? Are we to go to war ? Are we to 
interfere in the Greek cause, or any other European cause ? Are we to 
endanger our pacific relations ? — No, certainly not. What, then, the 
question recurs, remains for us ? If we will not endanger our own peace, 
if we will neither furnish armies, nor navies, to the cause which we 
think the just one, what is there within our power ? 

Sir, this reasoning mistakes the age. The time has been, indeed, 
when fleets, and armies, and subsidies were the principal reliances even 
in the best cause. But, happily for mankind, there has come a great 
change in this respect. Moral causes come into consideration, in pro- 
portion as the progress of knowledge is advanced ; and the public opinion 
of the civilized world is rapidly gaining an ascendency over mere brutal 
force. It is already able to oppose the most formidable obstruction to 
the progress of injustice and oppression; and, as it grows more intelli- 
gent and more intense, it will be more and more formidable. It may be 



THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 411 

silenced by military power, but it cannot be conquered. It is elastic, 
irrepressible, and invulnerable to the weapons of ordinary warfare. It 
is that impassible, unextinguishable enemy of mere violence and arbitrary 
rule, which, like Milton's angels, 

Vital in every part, 

Cannot, but by annihilating, die. 

Until this be propitiated or satisfied, it is vain for power to talk either 
of triumphs or of repose. No matter what fields are desolated, what 
fortresses surrendered, what armies subdued, or what provinces overrun. 
In the history of the year that has passed by us, and in the instance of 
unhappy Spain, we have seen the vanity of all triumphs, in a cause 
which violates the general sense of justice of the civilized world. It is 
nothing, that the troops of France have passed from the Pyrenees to 
Cadiz ; it is nothing that an unhappy and prostrate nation has fallen 
before them ; it is nothing that arrests, — that confiscation and execution 
sweep away the little remnant of national existence. There is an enemy 
that still exists to check the glory of these triumphs. It follows the 
conqueror back to the very scene of his ovations : it calls upon him to 
take notice that Europe, though silent, is yet indignant; it shows him 
that the sceptre of his victory is a barren sceptre ; that it shall confer 
neither joy nor honour, but shall moulder to dry ashes in his grasp. In 
the midst of his exultation, it pierces ^is ear with the cry of injured 
justice, it denounces against him the indignation of an enlightened and 
civilized age; it turns to bitterness the cup of his rejoicing, and wounds 
him with the sting which belong-s to the consciousness of having outraged 
the opinion of mankind. 



Extract from Mr. Clay's speech, in the House of Representatives, 
January, 1824, on the same subject : — 

What appearance, Mr. Chairman, on the page of history, would a 
record like this exhibit ? " In the month of January, in the year of 
our Lord and Saviour, 1824, while all European Christendom beheld 
with cold and unfeeling indifference the unexampled wrongs and inex- 
pressible miseries of Christian G-reece, a proposition was made in the 
Congress of the United States, almost the sole, the last, the greatest 
depository of human hope and human freedom, the representatives of a 
gallant nation, containing a million of freemen ready to fly to arms, 
while the people of that nation were spontaneously expressing its deep- 
toned feeling, and the whole continent, by one simultaneous emotion, 
was rising, and solemnly and anxiously supplicating and invoking high 
Heaven to spare and succour Greece, and to invigorate her arms in her 
glorious course, while temples and senate-houses were alike resounding 
with one burst of generous and holy sympathy : in the year of our Lord 
and Saviour — that Saviour of G-reece and of us — a proposition was offer- 
ed in the American Congress to send a messenger to G-reece, to inquire 
into her state and condition, with a kind expression of our good wishes 
and our sympathies — and it was rejected !" Go home, if you can — go 



412 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

home, if you dare, to your constituents, and tell them that you voted it 
down — meet, if you can, the appalling countenances of those who sent 
you here, and tell them that you shrank from the declaration of your own 
sentiments — that you cannot tell how, but that some unknown dread, 
some indescribable apprehension, some indefinable danger, drove you from 
your purpose — that the spectres of cimetars, and crowns, and crescents, 
gleamed before you, and alarmed you ; and that you suppressed all the 
noble feelings prompted by religion, by liberty, by national independ- 
ence^ and by humanity. 



ELOQUENT APPEAL IN FAVOUE OF THE GREEKS. 

Should the Turks prevail in the present contest, an amalgamation of 
victor and vanquished would be as impracticable now as when Grreece 
was first conquered by the Ottoman power. The possession of the 
country has been promised to the Bey of Egypt, as the reward of his 
services in effecting its conquest. The men-at-arms have already been 
doomed to military execution of the most cruel kind, and the women 
and children would be sold into Asiatic and African bondage. 

We are not left to collect this merely from the known maxims of 
Turkish warfare, nor the menaces which have repeatedl}^ been made by 
the Porte, but we see it exemplified in the island of Scio. On the soil 
of Greece, thus swept of its present population, will be settled the 
Egyptian and Turkish troops, by whom it shall have been subdued. 
Thus will have been cut off, obliterated from the map of Europe, and 
annihilated by the operation of whatever is most barbarous and terrific 
in the military practice of the Turkish government, an entire people j 
one of those distinct social families into which Providence collects the 
sons of men. In them will perish the descendants of ancestors, toward 
whom we all profess a reverence ; who carry, in the language they speak, 
the proof of their national identity. In them will be exterminated a 
people apt and predisposed for all the improvements of civilized life ; a 
people connected with the rest of Europe by every moral and intellectual 
association, and capable of being reared up into a prosperous and culti- 
vated state. Finally, in them will perish one whole Christian people ; 
and that the first that embraced Christianity ; churches actually founded 
by the apostles in person, churches for whose direct instruction a con- 
siderable part of the New Testament was composed, after abiding all 
the storms of eighteen centuries, and surviving so many vicissitudes, are 
now at length to be razed ; and, in the place of all this, an uncivilized 
Mohammedan horde is to be established upon the ruins. We say it is a 
most momentous alternative. Interest humani ycneris. The character 
of the age is concerned. The impending evil is tremendous. To preserve 
the faith of certain old treaties, concluded we forget when, the parlia- 
ment of England decides by acclamation to send an army into Portugal 
and Spain, because Spain has patronised the disaffection of the Portu- 
guese ultra-royalists. To prevent a change in the governments of Pied- 



APPEAL IN FAVOUR OF THE GREEKS. 413 

mont, Naples, and Spain, Austria and France invade those countries with 
large armies. Can those great powers look tamely on, and see the ruin 
of their Christian brethren consummated in Greece? Is there a faded 
parchment in the diplomatic archives of London or Lisbon, that binds 
the English government more imperiously than the great original obli- 
gation to rescue an entire Christian people from the cimetar ! Can 
statesmen, who profess to be, who are, influenced by the rules of a chaste 
and lofty public morality, justify their sanguinary wars with Ashantees 
and Burmans, and find reasons of duty for shaking the petty thrones of 
the interior of Africa, and allow an African satrap to strew the plains 
of Attica with bloody ashes ? 

If they can, and if they will, then let the friends of liberty, humanity, 
and religion, take up this cause, as one that concerns them, all and each, 
in his capacity as a Christian and a man. Let them make strong the 
public sentiment on this subject, and it will prevail. Let them remember 
what, ere now, has been done, by the perseverance and resolution of 
small societies, and even individual men. Let them remember how 
small a company of adventurers, unpatronised, scarcely tolerated by 
their government, succeeded in laying the foundations of this our happy 
country beyond a mighty ocean. Let .them recollect, that it was one 
fixed impression, cherished and pursued in the heart of an humble and 
friendless mariner, through long years of fruitless solicitation and faint- 
ing hope, to which it is owing that these vast American continents are 
made a part of the heritage of civilized man. Let them recollect that, 
in the same generation, one poor monk dismembered the great ecclesi- 
astical empire of Europe. Let them bear in mind, that it was a hermit 
who roused the nations of Europe, in mass, to engage in an expedition 
against the common enemy of Christendom ; an expedition, wild indeed, 
and unjustifiable, according to our better lights, but lawful and meri- 
torious in those who embarked in it. Let them, in a word, never forget, 
that when, on those lovely.islands and once happy shores, over which a 
dark cloud of destruction now hangs, the foundations of the Christian 
church were first laid, it was by the hands of private, obscure, and per- 
secuted individuals. It was the people, the humblest of the people, that 
took up the gospel, in defiance of all the patronage, the power, and the 
laws of the government. Why should not Christianity be sustained in 
the same country, and by the same means, by which it was originally 
established ? If, as we believe, it is the strong and decided sentiment 
of the civilized world, that the cause of the Greeks is a good cause, and 
that they ought not to be allowed to perish, it cannot be that this senti- 
ment will remain inoperative. The very existence of this sentiment is 
a tower of strength. It will make itself felt by a thousand manifesta- 
tions. It will be heard in our senates and our pulpits ; it will be echoed 
from our firesides. Does any one doubt the cause of America was 
mightily strengthened and animated by the voices of the friends of 
liberty in the British parliament ? Were not the speeches of Chatham 
and Burke worth a triumphant battle to our fathers ? And can any one 
doubt that the Grecian patriots will hold out, so long as the Christian 
world will cheer them with its sanction ? 

2k2 



414 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Let, then, tte public mind be disabused of tbe prejudices which mis- 
lead it on this question. Let it not be operated upon by tales of piracies 
at sea, and factions on land ; evils which belong not to Greeks, but to 
human nature. Let the means of propagating authentic intelligence of 
the progress of the revolution be multiplied. Let its well-wishers and 
its well-hopers declare themselves in the cause. Let the tide of pious 
and Christian charity be turned into this broad and thirsty channel. Let 
every ardent and high-spirited young man, who has an independent sub- 
sistence of two or three hund#gd dollars a year, embark personally in 
the cause, and aspire to that crown of gloiy, never yet worn except 
b}' him who so lately triumphed in the hearts of the entire millions 
of Americans. Let this be done, and Greece is safe. — North American 
Review. 



MANNERS. 

I MAKE it a point of morality never to find fault with another for his 
manners. They may be awkward or graceful, blunt or polite, polished 
or rustic, I care not what they are, if the man means well and acts from 
honest intentions, without eccentricity or affectation. All men have not 
the advantages of "good society," as it is called, to school themselves 
in all its fantastic rules and ceremonies, and if there is any standard of 
manners, it is one founded in reason and good sense, and not upon these 
artificial regulations. Manners, like conversation, should be extempora- 
neous, and not studied. I always suspect a man who meets me with 
the same perpetual smile on his face, the same congeeing of the body, 
and the same premeditated shake of the hand. Give me the hearty — ^it 
may be rough — grip of the hand — the careless nod of recognition, and, 
when occasion requires, the homely but welcome salutation — " How are 
you, my old friend V 



SELF-RESPECT. 



Teach a man to think meanly and contemptibly of himself, to cast 
off all sense of character and all consciousness of a superior nature, and 
moral persuasion can no more act upon such a man than if he were dead. 
A man may be addicted to many vices, and yet there may be a hope of 
reclaiming him. But the moment he loses all sense of character and 
all consciousness of a superior nature — that is, the moment he begins 
to look upon himself and his vices as worthy of one another, that 
moment all hope of reclaiming him perishes ; for the last ground is 
surrendered on which it is possible for his remaining good principles to 
rally and make a stand. We have often known men who have retained 
their self-respect long after they had lost their regard for principle ; but 
never one who retained his regard for principle after he had lost his self- 
respect. Destroy this, and you destroy every thing; for a man who 
does not respect himself respects nothing. 



THE GRAVE OF THE TEAR. — LOOK ALOFT. 



415 



THE GRAVE OF THE YEAR. 



Be composed, every toil and each tnrtnlent motion. 

That encircle the heart in life's treacherous snares. 
And the hour that invites to the calm of devotion, 

Undistnrb'd hy regrets, unencumber'd with cares; 
How clieerless the late blooming face of creation — 

Weary time seems to pause in his rapid career. 
And fatigued with the work of his own desolation. 

Looks behind with a smUe on the grave of the year. 

Hark! the wind whistles rudely, the shadows are 
closing. 
That enwrap his broad path in the mantle of night. 
While pleasure's gay sons are in quiet rejjosing, 
Undismay'd at the works that have number'd her 
flight. 
From yon temple where fashion's gay tapers are 
lighted 
Her votaries in crowds deck'd with garlands appear. 
And as yet their warm hopes by no spectre affrighted. 
Assemble to dance round the grave of the year. 

Oh ! I hate the stale cup which the idlers have tasted, 
■^Tien I think on the ills of life's comfortless day. 

How the flowers of my childhood their verdure have 
wasted. 
And the friends of my youth have been stolen av/ay. 



They think not how fruitless the warmest endeavour 

I To recall the kind moments neglected when near, 

I TMien the hours that oblivion has cancell'd for ever 

Are interr'd by her hand in the grave of the 

year. 

Since the last solemn reign of this day of reflection. 

What throngs have relinquish'd life's perishing 
hreath ; 
How many have shed their last tear of dejection. 

And closed the dim eye in the darkness of death. 
How many have sudden their pilgrimage ended. 

Beneath the low pall that envelopes the bier. 
Or to death's lonesome valley have gently descended. 

And made their cold beds with the grave of the 
year. 

Tet a while, and no seasons around ns shall flourish. 

But silence for each her dark mansion prepare ; 
When beauty no longer her roses shall nourish. 

Nor the lily o'erspread the wan cheek of despair ; 
But the eye shall with lustre unfading be brighten'd. 

When it wakes to true bliss in yon orient sphere. 
By sunbeams of splendour immortal enlighten'd, 

"Which no more shall go down on the grave of tha 
year. 



TO THE DEPARTED. 



Lips I have kiss'd, ye are faded and cold ; 
Hands I have press'd, ye are ccver'd with mould ; 
Form I have elasp'd, thou art crumbling away ; 
And soon on thy bosom my breast I will lay. 

Friends of my youth, I have witness'd yonr bloom ; 
Shades of the dead, I have wept at your tomb: 
Tomb, I have wreaths, were they worthy of thee ; 
But who will e'er gather a garland for me ? 

Friends of my youth, ye are hasting away: 
Grave, is there room in thy chamber of clay ? 
Ye who have hither so hastily fled. 
Say, is there room in the green-curtain'd bed ? 

Dreams of my youth, ye are faded and gone : 
3Iists of the vale, ye have clouded the morn : 



Death, wiU your vapours incessantly roU ? 
And life, m.nst it pass in the night of the soul ? 

Souls of the blest, from the mansions of day, 
Look on the pilgrim and lighten his way : 
Wing your swift flight to the death prepared bed. 
With visions of glory to circle his head. 

Stars, ye are thick in the pathway of light: 
Tisions of bliss, ye are banishing night: 
Pilgrim, arise, for the journey you tread 
Is leading to regions whence sorrow has fled. 

Ends of the spring, ye are blasted and dead : 
Leaves of the summer, your beauty has fled; 
Winter of grief, from the night of the tomb. 
The pole-star. Religion, will scatter the gloom. 



LOOK ALOFT. 



Ix the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale 
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail — 
If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart, 
"Look aloft" and be firm, and be fearless of heart. 

If the friend, who embraced in prosperity's glow. 
With a smile for each joy and a tear for each wo. 
Should betray thee when sorrow like clouds are ar- 

ray'd, 
■ Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade. 

thould the visions which hope spreads in light to 

thine eye. 
Like the tints of the rainbow, 'out brighten to fly. 



Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, 
" Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set. 

Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart — 

The wife of thy bosom — in sorrow depart, 

"Look aloft," from the darkness and dust of the 

tomb. 
To that soil where " affection is ever in bloom." 

And, oh ! when death comes, in terrors to cast 
His fears on the future, his pall on the past. 
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart, 
i And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft" and depart; 



416 ■ FIfiLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



MOTION OF THE PLANETS. 

These bodies, vast in magnitude, infinite in number, and the tenants 
of space, are in rapid motion ; but what imagination can possibly con- 
ceive of that power which impels. the movement? An idea may be 
acquired of this rapid motion by a, reference to familiar objects, the 
velocity of a ship impelled by wind, particularly if urged over the 
rolling billows by a furious tempest ; the swiftness of a bird winging 
its flight through the air, especially if pursued by an eagle ; the motion 
of a ball projected from a cannon, which, in some cases, is at the rate 
of 800 miles an hour. But these are creeping things. Saturn, one of 
the most tardy in its course of any of the planets, a globe 900 times 
larger than the earth, is impelled at the rate of 22,000 miles in an hour, 
carrying with him a system of stupendous rings, and seven moons larger 
than the earth's satellite. Jupiter, whose vast circumference would 
comprise within it a thousand such globes as we inhabit, moves at the 
rate of 20,000 miles in an hour. This earth is urged forward at the rate 
of 68,000 miles in an hour ; and Mercury still faster, being 107,000 miles 
in the same time; but even these motions are slow when compared with 
that of the comet of 1680, which went half round the sun in ten hours 
and a half, and its tail (at least a hundred millions of miles in length) 
turning round in the same time, keeping nearly in the direction opposite 
to the sun; the velocity of this comet, at this part of its orbit, (its peri- 
helion,) was 830,000 miles. in an hour; and so closely did it approach 
the sun, that, supposing the centrifugal or projectile force to have been 
annihilated at this point of its course, it would have fallen into the sun 
in less than three minutes ! In the sphere of the fixed stars there is 
reason to believe that bodies are in motion whose velocities are propor- 
tionably greater than any in the planetary system. 

One of the double stars completes its revolution in fifty-seven years ; 
in estimating the orbit described by a less sun about a greater, it will 
not be necessary to suppose (though- probably it is the case) that the 
two bodies are as remote from each other as the nearest fixed star is from 
our sun, namely, twenty millions of miles ; were it even admitted that 
the line of separation between them was only a twentieth part of this 
distance, the revolving star would then move at the rate of 12,000,000 
miles in an hour. This motion, observed among many of the fixed stars, 
confirms the belief, that our sun, with its bright retinue of comets, pla- 
nets, and satellites, is moving forward through space with a velocity 
past conjecture. It is, therefore, probable, that the solar system will 
never, in the course of its most protracted duration, revisit any part of 
the same curve or line it has moved over since the creation. — Time's 
Telescope. . 

The diameter of the comet of 1811 was estimated by Schroeter at 
50,0,00 miles; its co- a or envelope, 947,000 miles; and its tail oi- train 
of light, sixty millio s of ntiles in length, or more than half the distance 
between the earth and tin; >uii. — Dtc/^. 



WILD HORSES. 417 



WILD HORSES. 



The following paragraph, in relation to the droves of wild horses fre- 
quently met with in the prairies near the Rocky Mountains, is copied 
from a work written by the Rev. Timothy Flint: — 

The day before Ave came in view of the Rocky Mountains, I saw, in 
the greatest perfection, that impressive and, to me, almost sublime spec- 
tacle, an immense drove of wild horses, for a long time hovering round 
our path across the prairie. I had often seen great numbers of them 
before, mixed with other animals, apparently quiet, and grazing like the 
rest. Here there were thousands, unmixed, unemployed; their motions, 
if such a comparison might be allowed, as darting and as wild as those 
of humming-birds on the flowers. The tremendous snort with which 
the front columns of the phalanx made known their approach to us 
seemed to be their wild and energetic way of expressing their pitj^ and 
disdain for the servile lot of our horses, of which they appeared to be 
taking a survey. They were of all colours, mixed, spotted, and diver- 
sified with every hue, from the brightest white to clear and shining black; 
and of every form and structure, from the long and slender race to those 
of firmer limbs and heavier mould ; and of all ages, from the curvetting 
colt to the range of the patriarchal steeds, drawn up in a line, and hold- 
ing up their high heads for a survey of us in the rear. Sometimes they 
curved their necks, and made no more progress than just enough to keep 
pace with our advance. Then there was a kind of slow and walking 
minuet, in which they performed various evolutions, with the precision 
of the figures of a country-dance. Then a rapid movement shifted the 
front to the rear. But still, in all their evolutions and movements, like 
the flight of sea-fowls, their lines were regular and free from all indica- 
tions of confusion. At times a spontaneous and sudden movement 
towards us almost inspired the apprehension of a united attack upon 
us. After a moment's advance, a short and retrogade movement seemed 
to testify their proud estimate of their wild independence. The infinite 
variety of their rapid movements, their tamperings, and manoeuvres were 
of such a wild and almost terrific character, that it required but a mode- 
rate stretch of fancy to suppose them the genii of these grassy plains. 
At one period, they were formed, for an immense depth, in front of us. 
A wheel executed almost with the rapidity of thought presented them 
hovering on our flanks. Then again, the cloud of dust that enveloped 
their movements cleared away, and presented them in our rear. They 
evidently operated as a great annoyance to the horses and mules of our 
cavalcade. The frighted movements, the increased indications of fatigue, 
sufficiently evinced, with their frequent neighings, what unpleasant neigh- 
bours they considered their wild compatriots to be. So much did our 
horses appear to suifer from fatigue and terroiy in consequence of their 
vivacity, that we were thinking of some way in fvhich to drive them oif ; 
when on a sudden a patient and laborious donkey of the establishment, 
that appeared to have regarded all their movement with philosophic in- 

27 



418 FIBLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

difference, pricked up his long ears, and gave a loud and most sonorous 
bray from his vocal shell. Instantly this prodigious multitude, and there 
were thousands of them, took what the Spaniards called the "stompado." 
With a trampling like the noise of thunder, or still more like that of 
an earthquake, a noise that was absolutely appalling, they took to their 
heels, and were all in a few moments invisible, in the verdant depths of 
the plains, and we saw them no more. 



RESIGNATION. 



There is no virtue more acceptable to God, and in practice more con- 
ducive to human happiness, than resignation to the divine will. He who 
presumes to question the wisdom, the goodness, and the paternal solici- 
tude of the Supreme Being for the felicity of man, is guilty of the most 
heinous of crimes, and deserving of the most severe punishment. That 
wisdom which is displayed in the economy of the vast system of creation 
— that goodness which every page in the volume of nature exhibits in 
language the most forcible and endearing — that paternal solicitude which 
the scheme of redemption and pardon so gloriously illustrates, should 
silence every murmur when we are afflicted, and teach us to consider 
that we are chastised for the most benevolent purpose, and corrected 
that we may be worthy of those unfading joys for which we are ulti- 
mately designed. This globe is not constructed for the eternal abode of 
an eternal soul. We should view all its perplexities as equally short- 
lived and transitory. He who uses the good things of this world, with- 
out abusing them ; whom prosperity cannot elate ; who puts a just value 
upon what he possesses, and is ready to resign the blessings with which 
he is favoured into the hands of Him by whom they were bestowed, will 
surely receive an abundant reward. Resignation can alleviate the dis- 
tress of this life, calm its varied troubles, pour a ray of comfort to en- 
liven the vale of tears through which our pilgrimage must be made, and 
cheer with consoling expectations the gloom that lowers over the pillow 
of death. Who then would have the hardness to doubt the justice of 
the dispensations of Providence, or arraign Omniscience at the tribunal 
of human presumption. 

REPLY TO ATHEISM. 

I DESIRE no greater certainty in reasoning than that by which chance 
is excluded from the present disposition of the natural world. Universal 
experience is against it. What does chance ever do for us ? In the 
human body, for instance, chance, i. e. the operation of causes without 
design, may produce a wen, a wart, a mole, a pimple, but never an 
eye. Among inanimate substances, a clod, a pebble, a liquid drop, 
might be; but never was a watch, a telescope, an organized body of any 
kind, answering a valuable purpose by a complicated mechanism, the 
effect of chance. In no assignable instance has such a thing existed 
without intention somewhere. — Paley. 



A VISIT TO REDBANK, 419 



A VISIT TO KEDBANK. 

Of days gone by I love to speak, 

And hear from others tales of battle. — Anon. 

I DELIGHT to visit tlie battle-ground of the Revolution, not because 
it is stained with the blood of friends or foes, but because the germs of 
liberty were nurtured there. The wounded, the bleeding patriot, received 
there the oil to heal the scars obtained in freedom's cause ; that oil was 
the gladdening anticipation of our country's future glory, and her future 
greatness. 'Twas here (and I cast my eyes around the hallowed scene) 
the weary and exhausted soldier reposed, and here the tree of liberty 
grew to diffuse her gigantic blessings throughout the western world. I 
enjoyed many pleasing reflections on a late visit to the Red Banks, on the 
river Delaware ; although this spot is not famed, as many, for bloody 
battles, or the loss of zealous patriots in our country's cause, yet it tells 
the same tale, whispers the endearing fact, that the shackles of tyranny 
were removed by the heroic exertions of our fathers — 

And breathes the language of our land, 
Here fought a chosen little band. 

This spot is about six miles below the city of Philadelphia, on the 
Jersey side, and fifteen minutes ride from the pleasant village of Wood- 
bury. 

At that gloomy period of the Revolution, when the British army oc- 
cupied Philadelphia, a part of the American army were here encamped; 
the ground presents a beautiful eminence, rising about one hundred feet 
above the bed of the river ; the trenches, or breastworks, are of a circu- 
lar form, enclosing near three acres of land, or which many traces are 
seen of deeds performed a half century ago, suoh as the intrenchments 
spoken of, and the appearance of little mounds of earth, raised over the 
body of some near and dear friend, by those who remained to tell their 
melancholy fate ; but, alas ! where are they ? A large field-piece still 
remains, (or did at the time I visited the spot,) which is supposed to 
have burst.* One rude stone is also seen, on whose unhewn front are 
marked the rude traces of friendship, recording the fate of a martyr in 
our country's cause, who fell no doubt upon that very spot ; the letters 
appear to have been done with a bayonet or tomahawk, which are these, 

" Count De Knap, died 17 ;" the other part of the stone being much 

disfigured by time and abuse, I could decipher no more. 

jMany incidents have occurred here worth recording, but I have not 
been able to obtain them correctly ; one, however, I beg leave to mention. 
A large party of Hessians were sent out to reconnoitre the American 
camp, they were discovered by a party of heroes, who immediately attack- 
ed them ; a skirmish ensued ; the Americans finally retreated. The Hes- 

* Since wjiting the above I am told it has been taken away, by those who valued a 
few pounds of old iron more than the pleasing recollections which its ancient appearance 
invariably created. 



420 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

sians,* believing they had cut off their retreat, rushed, with all possible 
speed, to take the encampment ; the Americans had, however, by a 
circuitous route, regained their fortifications, and lay silent and breathless 
on their arms, like the fierce tiger, ready to bound upon the enemy ; the 
Hessians rushed towards the ramparts, the air resounding with their 
shouts of supposed victory. It was the scream, the shout of death ! The 
Americans rose from their lurking places, and, lo ! their foes fell like 
grass before the scythe, scarce knowing from whom they received their 
death — 

And silence reign'd above them. 

About fifty years ago, scenes like this were acted here ; noWj traces of 
such scenes alone are left — some fifty years ago the noble stream that 
washes the base of this bank, bore ou its bosom the light canvas ; but 
now, ships with swelling sails glide along, laden with the riches of the 
east, the north, and south : the west has presented her open ports for 
the luxuries of every clime. From the extreme height of the bank, we 
have a full view of Philadelphia on one hand ; while, on the other, a 
short distance below, are the means of its defence, (a fort,) from whose 
encircled point, encircled by the waters of the Delaware, rises the na- 
tional flag of our country, presenting the emblem of her liberty, and 
the pride of the ftrst and greatest free republic in the world ! 

They who can appreciate the recollection of such deeds, and, while they 
drop a tear over the sacred tombs of departed heroes, consider their blood 
sealed our country's charter of freedom ; the bones that whiten here, and 
enrich the soil, are the remains of those who pledged their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honours in its cause ; upon whose fallen bodies, 
from whose mouldering graves the goddess Liberty arose in all her natal 
purity, a being from the skies — they who can recall such scenes and such 
deeds had better visit this romantic spot ; there are many traces here to 
repay the traveller and amuse his fancy, not with fiction's dream, but 
the pleasing recollections of reality. 



A MIDNIGHT REFLECTION. 

'Tis midnight ! and midnight silence reigns triumphant o'er the 
world. This is the hour when man most feels his nothingness — this is 
the hour when solemnity gains possession of the untutored soul — this is 
the hour when the guilty conscience shudders beneath the pressure of its 
preponderous load — and this is the hour when the hardened sinner sees 
himself unpainted, and feels his soul shrink back from the prospects of 
eternity. But this, ah ! yes, this is the hour when the Christian holds 
communion with his God, or sleeps in undisturbed repose, while guar- 
dian angels watch around his bed, and, in the spirit of their Lord, they 
seem to say — '' Sleep, child of heaven, thy Father's eye is on thee ! No 
ill awaits thee here, but peace eternal waits for thee in heaven." 



•■■ It is a notorious fact in history, that the Hessians were totally ignorant of any mode 
of TParfare, save what depended ou strength and numbers. 



THE LAST SHOT. 421 



THE LAST SHOT. 

I HAVE been down to Redbank, on the Jersey side of the Delaware, 
below Philadelj^hia, to look at the remains of that little fortress, within 
whose rudely-constructed walls so terrible a blow was given to British 
courage. Only a few remains of that memorable fort are now to be seen. 
The breastworks are nearly levelled to the earth, and over some, the 
ploughshare of the industrious farmer has already passed. Nothing but 
a few mis-shapen mounds are visible to point out to the stranger the site 
where so much blood was spilt, where so many gallant spirits breathed 
their last. The neighbouring farmer, however, will point you to the 
battle-ground. His house stood within pistol-shot of the fort, and dur- 
ing the attack, the balls whistled around his roof in shrill and frequent 
showers. He will tell you all that can now be told of it. He saw the 
battle from his farm-house; he saw the foreign foe advance; he heard 
their shout as they entered the outer-wall, and in a moment after, he saw 
them hurrying back, bearing with them the body of their lamented and 
ill-fated Donop, 

The fort at Redbank was thrown up hastily by a handful of Ame- 
ricans. They constructed two walls, or two forts, one within the other ; 
the outer one of which was not completed when the enemy attacked it. 
At the head of a chosen band of men, Donop entered the outer wall, and 
thinking the fort taken by surprise, gave a shout of exultation, which 
was re-echoed by his men. They entered with shouldered arms. The 
feeble garrison, commanded by the gallant Greene, opened at once a brisk 
and murderous fire. I knew a Jerseyman who was in the fortress. He 
told me every particular. The narrow limits in which the assailants 
were confined, and the unlooked-for repulse, threw them into irremediable 
confusion. They fired a few shots, and hastily retired, just as the Ame- 
ricans had fired their eighth round of ammunition — and they had but 
nine rounds to a man. As the enemy turned about, a volunteer in the 
fort, whose musket had snapped, pulled the trigger a second time — the 
last shot from the fort — and the gallant, the misguided, the accomplished 
Donop fell, among a breastwork of his own dying men ! 

The enemy retreated to Philadelphia in the greatest confusion. Ter- 
rible slaughter had been made in their ranks, and they trembled for the 
whizzing of the next platoon of balls. Four pieces of brass cannon, which 
they brought to the assault, were either buried in the earth on their way 
home, or thrown into the neighbouring creek. Searches have been made 
for them, but they are lost for ever. Donop was carried to the nearest 
farm-house, his wounds dressed, and consolation given him. It was then 
that the gallant Hessian first saw his error. He was a mere hireling in 
the enemy's ranks. He had no enmity to Americans, for he was of an- 
other country, and we had never injured him. Bitterly did he regret, in 
the agonies of that tremendous and humbling moment, that he had lent 
his aid to smother the bursting flame of freedom, and deeply did he weep 
over the ignominy of his end. He felt there was none to pity him. The 
2L 



422 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Britisli did not; for they paid his king for his services; his king did 
not, for his death insured to him a stipulated compensation ; and Ame- 
rica could not, for he was a chosen enemy. Thus did the dying count 
depict his situation, and cried, " I, who might have flourished in the pa- 
laces of kings, am here, the victim of a mercenary bargain, left to die in 
a solitary hut, in the wilderness of America !" 

A solitary mound, with a bit of rough stone at the head, in the mar- 
gin of a wood, is all that now remains to point the stranger to the grave 
of Count Don op. His name has been rudely carved upon it; but the 
wanton sportsman makes the melancholy memento his favourite mark, 
and a few summers more will do away the slightest trace of where he 
now reposes. Such, alas ! is military glory ; such is the reward of daunt- 
less bravery and misguided virtue ! 

The hickory on which the banner of our country floated on that memo- 
rable day is still rocked by the breeze that sweeps across our happy 
country. Long may it flourish in undying prime ! I have cut a frag- 
ment from it, and it now stands before me in the fashion of an inkstand, 
from which the ink is draAvn that wrote these transient reminiscences of 
that ever-memorable scene. 



HAPPINESS. 

The happiness of this life is to us what the sun was said to be es- 
teemed by a certain race of savages — an object that will one day be 
within our reach. These untaught beings resolved at length to meet it, 
and with eager expectation they began their march towards the east, in the 
hope of catching the glorious luminary ere it appeared to them to raise 
itself from the earth, and every morning they anxiously stretched out 
their arms, exclaiming : " Ah ! when shall we attain it ?" They travel- 
led for a considerable time supported by their hopes, which only vanished 
when they found their career inevitably terminated by an immense 
ocean. And thus it will be with us all. We fix our eyes upon some 
point or object in which we believe happiness to consist, and journey on 
through cultivated tracts and through deserts ; we ti'averse flowery val- 
leys, and overleap rocks and precipices ; no difficulty or danger can arrest 
our steps, and ere we reach what we have sought, we are checked by the 
tomb opened before us, which is the immense ocean that swallows us all up. 



EPITAPH ON A SCOLD, BY HER HUSBAND. 

We lived one-and-twenty years 

As man and wife together j 
At last she's left me quiet here, 

And gone — I care not 'whither. 
I rather think she's soar'd aloft. 

For in the last great thunder, 
Methought I heard her very voice 

Rending the clouds asunder. 



Washington's address to the army. 423 



WASHINGTON'S ADDRESS TO THE ARMY. 

Extract from General Washington's Address to the American Army, in 
relation to an insidious attempt to seduce them from their allegiance 
to their country, in 1783. 

Gentlemen : — If my conduct heretofore has not evinced to you that I 
have been a faithful friend to the army, my declaration of it at this time 
would be equally unavailing and improper. But as I was among the first 
who embarked in the cause of our common country; as I have never left 
your side one moment but when called from you on public duty; as I 
have been the constant companion and witness of your distresses, and 
not among the last to feel and acknowledge your merits; as I have ever 
considered my own military reputation as inseparably connected with that 
of the army ; and my heart has ever expanded with joy when I heard its 
praises, and my indignation has risen when the mouth of detraction has 
been opened against it — it can scarcely be supposed, at this last stage of 
the war, that I am indifferent to its interests. 

With respect to the advice given by the author to suspect the man 
who shall recommend moderation and longer forbearance, I spurn it, 
as every man, who regards that liberty, and reveres the justice for which 
we contend, undoubtedly must; for, if a man is to be precluded from 
offering his sentiments on a matter which may involve the destiny of our 
country, reason is of no use to us. I cannot, in justice to my own belief, 
conclude this address, without giving it as my decided opinion, that 
Congress entertain exalted sentiments of the services of the army, and, 
from a full conviction of its merits and sufferings, will do it complete 
justice ; that their endeavors to discover and establish funds have been 
unwearied, and that they will never cease till they have succeeded. 

Why should we distrust them ? And why, in consequence of that 
distrust, adopt measures which will cast a shade over that glory which 
has been so justly acquired, and tarnish the reputation of an army 
which has been celebrated throughout all Europe for its fortitude and 
patriotism ? 

While I pledge myself in the most unequivocal manner to exert what- 
ever ability I am possessed of in your favour, let me entreat you, gen- 
tlemen, on your part, not to take any measures which, viewed in the 
calm, light of reason, will lessen the dignity and sully the glory you have 
hitherto maintained. Let me request you to rely on the plighted faith 
of your country, to place a full confidence in the purity of the intentions 
of Congress, and to assure yourselves that they will adopt the most 
effectual measures in their power to render ample justice to you for 
your faithful and meritorious services. 

By thus determining, and thus acting, you will pursue the plain and 
direct road to the attainment of your wishes : you will give one more 
proof of unexampled patriotism and patient virtue, rising superior to the 
pressure of the most complicated sufferings ; and you will, by the dignity 



424 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

of your conduct, aiFord occasion for posterity to say, wben speaking of 
the glorious esample you have exhibited to mankind, " Had this day 
been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to 
which human nature is capable of attaining." 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION ADVOCATED. 

Extract from the Speech of Patrick Henry ^ in the Convention of Vir- 
ginia, March, 1775, in favour of resistance hy the Colonies. 

Mr. President — It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of 
hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth — and listen 
to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the 
part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty ? 
Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, 
and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern our tem- 
poral salvation ? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, 
I am willing to know the whole truth ; to know the worst, and to pro- 
vide for it. 

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp 
of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the 
past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in 
the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those 
hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and 
the house ? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been 
lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet. 
Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how 
this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike pre- 
parations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and 
armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation ? Have we shown 
ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to 
win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the 
implements of war and subjugation — the last arguments to which 
kings resort. 

I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be 
not to force us to submission ? Can gentlemen assign any other possible 
motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the 
world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? No, sir, 
she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. 
They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the 
British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to 
oppose to them ? Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have been trying 
that for the last ten years. Have we any thing new to offer upon the 
subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of 
which it is capable ; but it has been all in vain. 

Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication ? What terms 
shall we find, which have not been already exhausted ? Let us not, I 



WAR OF THE REVOLUTION ADVOCATED. 425 

teseecli you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done every thing 
that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We 
have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated ; we have 
prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition 
to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. Our 
petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional 
violence and insult ; our supplications have been disregarded ; and we 
have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne. 

In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and 
reconciliation. There is no longer any room for liojje. If we wish to be 
free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for 
which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon 
the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which 
we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of 
our contest shall be obtained, we must fight ! — I repeat it, sir, we must 
fight ! ! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us. 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so formidable 
an adversary. But when shall we be stronger ? Will it be the next 
week or the next year ? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and 
when a British gTiard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall we gather 
strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means of 
effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the 
delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand 
and foot ? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means 
which the Grod of nature hath placed in our power. 

Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and iu 
such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force 
which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight 
our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies 
of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The 
battle, sir, is not to the strong alone ; it is to the vigilant, the active, 
the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough 
to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no 
retreat but in submission and slavery ! Our chains are forged. Their 
clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The war is inevitable, 
and let it come ! ! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! I ! 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, 
peace ; but there is no peace. The war is actually begun ! The next 
gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of re- 
sounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field ! Why stand we 
here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What would they have ? 
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains 
and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! I know not what course others 
may take ; but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death. 



The number of stars, or suns, comprehended in that portion of the 
firmament which is within the reach of our telescopes would be 
20,000,000,000, or twenty thousand millions, which is twenty millions 
of times the number of all the stars visible to the naked eye. — Dick. 

2l2 



426 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



SPEECH ON THE DEATH OF HAMILTON. 

BY DR. MASON. 

Sad, my fellow-citizens, are the recollections and forebodings which 
the present solemnities force upon the mind. Five years have not elapsed 
since your tears flowed for the father of your country, and you are again 
assembled to shed them over her eldest son. No, it is not an illusion; 
would to God it were ! Your eyes behold it ; the urn which bore the 
ashes of Washington is followed by the urn which bears the ashes of 
Hamilton. 

Fathers, friends, countrymen ! the grave of Hamilton speaks. It 
charges me to remind you that he fell a victim, not to disease or acci- 
dent ; not to the fortune of glorious warfare ; but, how shall I utter it ? 
to a custom which has no origin but superstition, no aliment but depra- 
vity, no reason but in madness. Alas ! that he should thus espose his 
precious life. This was his error. A thousand bursting hearts reite- 
rate, This ^cas his error. 

Shall I apologize ? I am forbidden by his living protestations, by his 
dying regrets, by his wasted blood. Shall a solitary act, into which he 
was betrayed and dragged, have the authority of a precedent ? The plea 
is precluded by the long decisions of his understanding, by the principles 
of his conscience, and by the reluctance of his heart. Ah ! when will 
our morals be purified, and an imaginary honour cease to cover the most 
pestilent of human passions ? 

My appeal is to military men. Your honour is sacred. Listen. Is 
it honourable to enjoy the esteem of the wise and good ? The wise and 
good turn with disgust from the man who lawlessly aims at his neigh- 
bour's life. Is it honourable to serve your country ? That man cruelly 
injures her who, from private pique, calls his fellow-citizen into the 
dubious field. 

Is fidelity honourable? The man forswears his faith who turns 
against the bowels of his countrymen weapons put into his hand for 
their defence. Are generosity, humanity, and sympathy honourable ? 
That man is superlatively base who mingles the tears of the widow and 
orphan with the blood of a husband and father. Do refinement and 
courtesy and benignity entwine with the laurels of the brave ? The 
blot is yet to be wiped from the soldier's name, that he cannot treat his 
brother with the decorum of a gentleman unless the pistol or the dagger 
be every moment at his heart. Let the votaries of honour now look 
at their deed. Let them compare their doctrine with this horrible com- 
ment. 

My countrymen, the land is defiled with blood unrighteously shed. Its 
cry, disregarded on earth, has gone up to the throne of God ; and this 
day does our punishment reveal our sin. It is time for us to awake. 
The voice of moral virtue, the voice of domestic alarm, the voice of the 
fatherless and widow, the voice of a nation's wrong, the voice of Hamil- 
ton's blood, the voice of impending judgment, calls for a remedy. 



ETEKNITY OF GOD. 427 

At this hour Heaven's high reproof is sounding from Maine to Greor- 
gia, and from the shores of the Atlantic to the banks of the Missis- 
sippi. If we refuse obedience, every drop of blood spilled in single 
combat will lie at our door, and will be recompensed when our cup is 
full. We have, then, our choice, either to coerce iniquity, or prepare 
for desolation ; and in the mean time, to make our nation, though infant 
in years, yet mature in vice, the scorn and the abhorrence of civilized 
man ! 

Fathers, friends, countrymen ! the dying breath of Hamilton recom- 
mended to you the Christian's hope. His single testimony outweighs 
all the cavils of the sciolist and all the jeers of the profane. 

Who will venture to pronounce a fable, that doctrine of " life and im- 
mortality" which his profound and irradiating mind embraced as the 
truth of God ? When you are to die, you will find no source of peace but 
in the faith of Jesus. Cultivate for your present repose and your future 
consolation what our departed friend declared to be the support of his 
expiring moments : " A tender reliance on the mercies of the Almighty, 
through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ." 



ETERNITY OF GOD, 

BY GREENWOOD. 

If all who live and breathe around us are the creatures of yesterday, 
and destined to see destruction to-morrow ; if the same condition is our 
own, and the same sentence is written against us ; if the solid forms of in- 
animate nature and laborious art are fading and falling ; if we look in vain 
for durability to the very roots of the mountains ; where shall we turn, 
and on what can we rely ? Can no support be offered ? can no source of 
confidence be named ? Oh yes ! there is one Being to whom we can look 
with a perfect conviction of finding that security which nothing about 
us can give, and which nothing about us can take away. To this Being 
we can lift up our souls, and on him we may rest them, exclaiming, in 
the language of the monarch of Israel, "Before the mountains were 
brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even 
from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." " Of old hast thou laid 
the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old 
like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be 
changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." 

The eternity of God is a subject of contemplation, which, at the same 
time that it overwhelms us with astonishment and awe, affords us an 
immovable ground of confidence in the midst of a changing world. All 
things which surround us, all these dying, mouldering inhabitants of 
time, must have had a Creator, for the plain reason, that they could not 
have created themselves. And their Creator must have existed from all 
eternity, for the plain reason, that the first cause must necessarily^ be 
uncaused. As we cannot suppose a beginning without a cause of exist- 



428 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ence, that which is the cause of all existence must be self-existent, and 
could have had no beginning. And, as it had no beginning, so also, as 
it is beyond the reach of all influence and control, as it is independent 
and almighty, it will have no end. Here then is a support which will 
never fail ; here is a foundation which can never be moved — the ever- 
lasting Creator of countless worlds, '' the high and lofty One that inha- 
biteth eternity.'" "What a sublime conception ! He inhabits eternity, 
occupies this inconceivable duration, pervades and fills throughout this 
boundless dwelling. Ages on ages before even the dust of which we 
are formed was created, he had existed in infinite majesty, and ages on 
ages will roll away after we have all returned to the dust whence we 
were taken, and still he will exist in infinite majesty, living in the eter- 
nity of his own nature, reigning in the plenitude of his own omnipotence, 
for ever sending forth the word, which forms, supports, and governs all 
things, commanding new-created light to shine on new-created worlds, 
and raising up new-created generations to inhabit them. 

The contemplation of this glorious attribute of Grod is fitted to excite 
in our minds the most animating and consoling reflections. Standing, 
as we are, amid the ruins of time and the wrecks of mortality, where 
every thing about us is created and dependent, proceeding from nothing, 
and hastening to destruction, we rejoice that something is presented to 
our view which has stood from everlasting, and will remain for ever. 
When we have looked on the pleasures of life, and they have vanished 
away ; when we have looked on the works of nature, and perceived that 
they were changing; on the monuments of art, and seen that they would 
not stand ; on our friends, and they have fled while we were gazing ; on 
ourselves, and felt that we were as fleeting as they ; when we have looked 
on every object to which wt could turn our anxious eyes, and they have 
all told us that they could give us no hope nor support, because they 
were so feeble themselves ; we can look to the throne of Grod : change 
and decay have never reached that ; the revolution of ages has never 
moved it ; the waves of an eternity have been rushing past it, but it has 
remained unshaken; the waves of another eternity are rushing toward 
it, but it is fixed, and can never be disturbed. 



HOW TO LIVE. 



A MAN should live in the world like a true citizen ; he may be allowed 
to have a preference to the particular quarter, or square, or even alley in 
which he lives ; but he should have a generous sympathy for the welfare 
of the whole ; and if, in his rambles through this great city, the world, 
he chances to meet a man of difi'erent habit, language, or complexion 
from his own, still he is his fellow-creature, a short sojourner, in common 
with himself; subject to the same wants, infirmities, and necessities; 
and one who has a brother's claim on him for his charity, comfort, and 
relief. 



THE HERO OF THE PLAGUE. 429 



THE HERO OF THE PLAGUE. 

When the plague raged violently at Marseilles, every link of affec- 
tion was broken ; the father turned from the child — the child from the 
father ; cowardice and ingratitude no longer excited indignation. Misery 
is at its height when it thus destroys every generous feeling — thus dis- 
solves every tie of humanity ! The city became a desert; the grass 
grew in the streets ; a funeral met you at every step ! 

The physicians assembled in a body at the Hotel de Ville, to hold a 
consultation on the fearful disease, for which no remedy had yet been 
discovered. After a long consultation, they decided unanimously, that 
the malady had a peculiar and mysterious character, which opening a 
corpse might develope — an operation which it was impossible to attempt, 
since the operator must infallibly become a victim, in a few hours, be- 
yond the power of human art to save him, as the violence of the attack 
Would preclude their administering the customary remedies. A dead 
pause succeeded this fatal declaration. Suddenly, a surgeon by the 
name of Guyon, in the prime of life, of great celebrity in his profession, 
rose, and said firmly, " Be it so : I devote myself for the safety of the 
country. Before this numerous assembly, I promise in the name of 
humanity and religion, that to-morrow, at the break of day, I will dis- 
sect a corpse, and write down, as I proceed, what I observe." 

He left the assembly instantly. They admired him, lamented his 
fate, and doubted whether he would persist in his design. The intrepid 
and pious Guyon, animated by all the sublime energy that religion or 
patriotism can inspire, acted up to his word. He had married, and was 
rich ; and he immediately made his will, dictated by justice and piety. 

A man had died in his house within four-and-twenty hours. Gruyon, 
at daybreak, shut himself up in the same room ; he took with him ink, 
paper, and a little crucifix. Full of enthusiasm, never had he felt more 
firm or collected. Kneeling beside the corpse, he wrote — " Mouldering 
tenement of an immortal soul — not only can I gaze on thee without 
terror, but even with joy and gratitude. Thou wilt open to me the 
gates of a glorious eternity. In discovering to me the secret cause of 
the terrible plague which destroys my native city, thou wilt enable me 
to point out some salutary remedy ; thou wilt render my sacrifice useful. 
God !" continued he, " thou wilt bless the action thou, hast thyself 
inspired." 

He began — he finished the dreadful operation, and recorded in detail 
his surgical observations. He then left the room, threw the papers into 
a vase of vinegar, and immediately sought the Lazaretto, where he died 
in twelve hours— a death ten times more glorious than the warrior who, 
to save his country, rushes on the enemy's ranks, since he advances with 
hope, at least, and sustained, admired, and seconded by a whole army. 

Physicians who remain firm in the discharge of their duties, while the 
fears of their fellow-citizens are prompting them to fly from contagion, 
display that moral courage which is as far superior to the physical energy 
which sustains the soldier in battle, as the mind is superior to matter. 



430 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



KETEOSPECTION. 



Come and let us muse on days that have past; days, whose remembrance 
awakens thoughts melancholy and sad ; yet, days which we love to view 
through the vista of memory. 

Transported by fancy to the scenes of our childhood, how delightful 
is retrospection. There we again act each playful humour of our youth 
— each innocent pastime of our boyhood. We think of the friends who 
joined in our mirth — of the parents who promoted our enjoyment. We 
wander through the same woods consecrated to friendship — through the 
same avenues sacred to youthful romance. We listen to the rustling 
murmurings of the foliage of the forest — to the purling of the shady 
stream, upon whose banks we formerly rioted in unalloyed pleasure, till 
we almost fancy those days to have returned with all their joyous, glad- 
some hours. 

But memory also brings with it a feeling of pensive sadness, when 
she reminds us that these have passed away, and with them the compa- 
nions of our social glee. Then all was bright with hope ; the heart was 
joyous and gay; the little troubles which a moment clouded our happi- 
ness were soon forgotten; and the cares of the world were unknown 
and unregarded ; but now we see hope blighted — former intimacies 
destroyed — and thorns, where we imagined nothing but roses and flowers 
grew. But still we delight to think on the moments of bliss that have 
passed, the friends that have become estranged, and the hearts that once 
" were near and dear." We cherish their remembrance, and, while we 
admire their virtues, almost forget that we are alienated and become as 
straD2'ers. 



IMAGINATION. 

To thee, goddess of fancy, I would fain address my lay. 

Reason may teach us to dive into the dark recesses of nature, and 
philosophy lead us to examine her hidden works ; science may throw 
open the portals of truth, and wisdom guide us to a knowledge of our 
fellow-man ; but it is for thee, imagination, to soar above all these, and, 
by thy magic power, to glide through the wide range of possibility. 

Aided by thee, man can perform within the narrow sphere of his 
own mind all that the pen of the historian has transcribed, or the hand 
of the poet depicted. He can range his armies, fight his battles, and 
display to his delighted fancy his character as a mighty man of valour ; 
or, inspired by the heavenly muse, he can languish in the soft twilight, 
or breathe in the sweet beauty of a moonlight vision. 

Borne on the wings of the morning, wafted by the perfumes of Arabia, 
he knows no boundary to his flight, no curtailment to his fancy. Roving 
through the boundless extent of infinite space, he discovers new spheres, 
new suns, with all their attendant planets. He traces the fiery comet 
through its vast unmeasured orbit ; at one time on the utmost verge of 



THE MISER OUTWITTED. 431 

the universe — at another, scorched by the fervent heat of a summer 
solstice. 

He travels back to the source of time, and beholds the mighty void, 
from whence 

These worlds were eall'd to light, 

and sees them arise in beauty and harmony at the voice of the Almighty, 
and commence their magnificent courses through the wide range of 
heaven's domains. ****** 

Such is the imagination of man. Confined within the bounds of 
reason, what are we not capable of viewing or performing, when we 
court its influence ? But, like the airy vision of a dream, it vanishes with 
the morning's dawn, leaving nothing behind, but the idea of its power, 
and a knowledge of the unwarrantable scope of the human mind. 



THE MISER OUTWITTED. 

It was observed that a certain covetous rich man never invited any 
one to dine with him. " I'll lay a wager," said a wag, " I get an invi- 
tation from him.'^ The wager being accepted, he goes the next day to 
the rich man's house, about the time he was known to sit down to dinner, 
and tells the servant that he must then speak with his master, for that 
he could save him a thousand pounds. " Sir," said the servant to his 
master, " here is a man in a great hurry wishing to speak with you, who 
says he can save you a thousand pounds." Out came the master — 
" What is that you say, sir — that you can save me a thousand pounds ?" 
" Yes, sir, I can — but I see you are at dinner ; I will go myself and 
dine, and call again." " Oh, pray, sir, come in and take dinner with 
me." " Sir, I shall be troublesome." '' Not at all." The invitation 
was accepted. As soon as dinner was over, " Well, sir," said the man 
of the house, " now to our business. Pray let me know how I am to 
save a thousand pounds." '* Why, sir," said the other, "I hear you 
have a daughter to dispose of in marriage." " I have." "And that 
you intend to portion her with ten thousand pounds." " I do so." 
" Why, then, sir, let me have her, and I will take her with nine thou- 
sand." The master of the house rose in a passion, and turned him out 
of doors in a hurry. 



Difference between Simple and Compound Interest. — From 
the birth of Christ to the 25th of December, 1815, one penny, at five 
per cent, simple interest, amounts to 7s. 3^d; at compound interest, it 
would be £1,227,742,357,141,817,589,060,967,240,755,491 9s. 9d. 

Allowing a cubic inch of gold to be worth £38, 16s. 6d., and the 
above sum to be condensed into a globe of gold, its diameter will be 
6,193,604 miles, 540 yards, 1 foot, 6 inches and a fraction, which would 
exceed in magnitude all the planets in the solar system ; and supposing 
this earth to be solid gold, it would not pay one hour's interest of the 
above sum. 



432 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK, 



THE EXPRESS. 

During that disastrous period of the Ptevolution which succeeded the 
defeat of Washington at Brandywine, and his subsequent repulse at G er- 
mantown, the excitement of the public mind was deep and anxious, and 
the spirits of the whole nation seemed depressed and paralyzed by the 
overthrow of their sagacious leader in two successive battles. The public 
expectation was on tiptoe for every breath of news, in hopes that it might 
bring accounts of some achievement which would wipe away the stain 
of Brandywine and Germantown, or lest it should inform them of some 
equally disastrous battle. Towards the close of a wet, uncomfortable 
day, a week or two after the defeat at Grermantown, a horseman, heavily 
armed, and clad in a thick overcoat, which was nearly covered with mud, 
was observed to ride up from the river, through the main street of Easton. 
He stopped at the first tavern in sight, and inquired for the commanding 
ofl&cer of the station. It was presently noised through the town that 
an express had arrived, and the citizens flocked in crowds to the house 
of the commandant, to learn the news. The stranger quickly informed 
him that he carried an express of great importance, and that he must be 
immediately furnished with guides to conduct him to the camp of Wash- 
ington. Two trusty men were forthwith selected, and just at candle- 
light the three started for Whitemarsh, whither Washington had re- 
treated after his unfortunate attack upon the enemy at Germantown. 
Pursuing an unfrequented path, they were descending a little eminence 
which ovei'looked the encampment, just as the sun rose, after a wet and 
fatiguing ride during the whole night. 

As their jaded horses slowly descended the eminence, the bearer of 
the express and his companions could observe the line of sentries pacing 
to and fro upon the wet grass, some distance from the tents, and a few 
officers and soldiers performing their morning ablutions. Three horse- 
men of their mysterious character were an unusual sight at Whitemarsh, 
and the officers and men regarded them with fixed and anxious attention. 
The fact of their approach was passed into the tents, and a crowd of 
officers and soldiers soon appeared, all intently watching their designs. 
As they neared the sentries, they dropped their muskets to a charge and 
bade them halt. An officer, approaching the group at this moment, was 
told by one of the guides in a loud voice, that they had an express for 
General Washington ; upon which they were instantly allowed to pass. 
Their business reaching the ears of the troops, an immense crowd was 
soon collected around them, so great as to prevent their proceeding only 
at a very slow pace. The impatience of the troops to hear the news could 
not be restrained, and they called loudly to be informed. An officer 
approached one of the guides, and, putting his hand to his mouth, beg- 
ged him, for heaven's sake, just to tell him whether it was good or bad. 
The guide, who was himself ignorant of the news he was carrying, but 
ashamed to let others know it, put his finger beside his nose with a most 
important manner, and gave the officer a significant shake of the head, 
by way of reply, and which might be safely interpreted either way. He 



THE EXPRESS. 433 

ctose to receive it as favourable ; and, pulling off his hat, gave three 
hearty cheers, which the surrounding troops immediately joined with 
laudable good-humour — not one of them knowing what he was cheering 
about ! The noise reaching the ears of those in the tents, they too gave 
three cheers, although no whit wiser than the others, and immediately 
joined the formidable cavalcade. 

While the expi-ess and his guides were advancing, the afore-mentioned 
officer hastened across the fields to apprize Washington that an express 
was near at hand. When the concourse reached his lodgings, the mul- 
titude, dying with impatience to have their curiosity gratified, in their 
eagerness, tore the three from their horses, and bore them upon their 
shoulders up the steps of the house where Washington was quartered. 
At that instant, the commander-in-chief appeared from the far end of 
the entry, and beckoned them in. They entered a spacious room, in 
which was a large table covered Avith smoking dishes, and to which 
Washington, with all his staff, was about sitting down to breakfast. The 
door was instantly shut, and the bearer of the express stepped forward 
to General Washington, informed him that he bore important despatches, 
and opening his coat, pointed to the left lapel, in which he stated they 
were concealed. Instantly a dozen knives were in operation, and in a 
few moments the despatches were exhibited — leaving the poor bearer 
with a ruined coat upon his back. 

A stillness, unbroken but by the half-suppressed breathings of the 
spectators, succeeded. Washington, seating himself at the head of the 
table, unfolded the mysterious document, and perused it silently. Not a 
muscle of his noble features moved — but his eye was seen to lighten up 
a little. Around him sat the flower of the army — Knox, Pulaski, and 
Grreene, with Hamilton, his first aid-de-camp, on his right hand. While 
the general read the paper, the impatience of his officers, burning to be 
gratified, was with the utmost difficulty restrained ; yet a solemn and 
death-like silence reigned within the room. At the window might be 
seen the equally impatient troops, endeavouring to catch some certain 
signal from the group within. When Washington had finished, he turned 
to Hamilton, and desired him to read the document aloud. Hamilton 
began with a voice already thick with joy — for his quick eye in an in- 
stant had caught the contents of the paper. But he began. It was the 
official report from General Gates, communicating the original intelli- 
gence of the total defeat and capture of the British army, commanded 
by Burgoyne, at Saratoga ! 

When Hamilton had read merely enough to inform the company, the 
whole staff rose from the table with tears in their eyes, and in the pre- 
sence of their dignified commander, gave three hearty cheers. Washing- 
ton, in a voice made indistinct and tremulous with joy, commanded 
them to order, which with extreme difficulty he succeeded in restoring. 
He then requested Hamilton to read the whole. When he had done 
so, the officers again rose, and, in the excess of their delight,^ upset the 
table, stamped upon the dishes and the untasted meats, and, in spite of 
Washington's repeated calls to order, broke the breakfast table and its 
burden into atoms. 

2M 28 



434 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Unable to restore silence, or careless to repress the honest joy of his 
friends, the general retired with Hamilton to another room, to issue new 
instructions suitable to the emergency. Meanwhile, the assembled mul- 
titude at the windows, the unsatisfied spectators of these extravagant 
demonstrations of joy, still ignorant of the cause, renewed their shout- 
ings, and the air rang with the acclamations of five thousand veterans, 
not a man of them knowing what he was shouting for ! 

When the uproar had in a degree subsided, Washington returned to 
greet a second time the bearers of these welcome tidings. Addressing 
them with the kindest language, he told them they must be wet and 
hungry from travelling all night, and that whatever they might wish 
should be set before them. One of them, an honest German, proud of 
the attention shown him by that noble man, replied, with his arms 
akimbo, and with quite a consequential air, as if the fate of the nation 
depended upon what he had for breakfast, " Why, please your excellency, 
I'll have some ham and eggs I" — and accordingly ham and eggs were 
given to him. A suitable reward was given to the guides, one of whom 
boasted, as he told the story with tears in his eyes, that for that night's 
service he received five pounds in hard money. 

The news was soon communicated to the neighbouring detachments, 
who were quartered in the vicinity, and orders given to stop all strag- 
glers going in to the enemy, who had then possession of Philadelphia. 
Accordingly, an old woman, dressed as a market-woman, and bearing 
some panniers on her horse, was stopped the same day by Captain Craig, 
at Moorstown, a few miles from the city, and examined. On taking off 
her bonnet, to which she made a stout resistance, a bundle was discovered 
in her hair. It proved to be the official despatches from Burgoyne to 
G-eneral Howe, informing him of his disastrous capture. They had been 
brought as far as Baskingridge, in Jersey, by express, but, fearful of 
detection if attempted to be delivered by a man, were there intrusted to 
a female disguised as a market-woman. The heroine was immediately 
remounted on her horse with uncomfortable quickness, and started off 
for Philadelphia with this satisfactory ejaculation, " That if she had 
such news to take General Howe, she might be off with it as soon as 
she pleased." 



SHERIDAN. 



This gentleman called one morning on Miss McFadden, to take his 
leave of her for a few days ; the young lady asked, in a tone that well 
expressed more than the words which accompanied it, how long he in- 
tended to stay away? To which he immediately replied : — 

You ask how long I'll stay from thee ? 

Suppress these rising fears ; 
If you should reckon time like me, 

Perhaps ten thousand years. 



THE PERSON OE JESUS CHRIST. — JUDEA. 435 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST, 

As it toas found in an ancient manuscript, iohicJi was sent hy PuMius 
Lentulus, President of Judea, to the Senate of Rome. 

There lives at this time in Judea a man of singular character, whose 
naine is Jesus Christ. The barharians esteem him a prophet, but his 
followers adore him as the immediate offspring of the Immortal God. 
He is endowed with such unparalleled virtue as to call back the dead 
from their graves, and to heal every kind of disease with a word or a 
touch. His person is tall and elegantly shaped ; his aspect amiable and 
reverend ; his hair flows in beautiful shades, which no united colours 
can match, falling into graceful curls below his ears, agreeably couching 
on his shoulders, and parting on the crown of his head, like the head- 
dress of the sect of the Nazarites. His forehead is smooth, and his 
cheeks without a spot, save that of a lovely red. His nose and mouth 
are formed with exquisite symmetry ; his beard is thick, and suitable to 
the hair of his head, reaching a little below his chin, and parted in the 
middle like a fork ; his eyes are bright, clear, and serene. He rebukes 
with majesty, counsels with mildness, and invites with the most tender 
and persuasive language. His whole address, whether in word or deed, 
being elegant, brave, and strictly characteristic of so exalted a being. 
No man has seen him laugh, but the whole world has frequently beheld 
him weep ; and so persuasive are his tears, that the multitude cannot 
withhold theirs from joining in sympathy with him. He is very modest, 
temperate, and wise. In short, whatever this phenomenon may be in 
the end, he seems at present a man of excellent beauty and divine per- 
fections ; every way surpassing the children of men. 



JUDEA. 

M. Chateaubriand remarks, that when you travel in Judea, the 
heart is at first filled with profound melancholy. But when, passing 
from solitude to solitude, boundless space opens before you, this feeling 
wears off by degrees, and you experience a secret awe, that, so far from 
depressing the soul, imparts life and elevates the genius. Extraordinary 
appearances everywhere proclaim a land teeming with miracles. The 
burning sun, the towering eagle, the barren fig-tree, all the pictures of 
Scripture, are here. Every name commemorates a mystery ; every grotto 
announces a prediction ; every hill re-echoes the accent of a prophet. 
G-od himself has spoken in these regions, dried up rivers, rent the rocks, 
and opened the grave. The desert still appears mute with terror; and 
you would imagine that it had never presumed to interrupt the silence 
since it heard the awful voice of the Eternal. 



436 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



FARE THEE WELL. 



Fare thee well ! and if for ever. 

Still for ever, fare tliee well ! 
Even though unforgiving, never 

'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel. 
Would that breast were bared before thee 

Where thy head so oft hath lain, 
While that placid sleep came o'er thee, 

Which thou ne'er canst know again ; 
Would that breast, by thee glanced over. 

Every inmost thought could show ! 
Then thou wouldst at last discover 

'Twas not well to spurn it so. 
Though the world for this commend thee, 

Though it smile upon the blow. 
Even its praises must offend thee. 

Founded on another's wo, 
Though my many faults defaced me. 

Could no other arm be found 
Than the one which once embraced me. 

To inflict a cureless wound ? 
Yet, oh ! yet, thyself deceive not. 

Love may sink by slow decay. 
But by sudden wrench, believe not 

Hearts can thus be torn away : 
Still thine own its life retaineth— 

Still must mine, though bleeding, beat ; 
And the undying thought which paineth 

Is — that we no more may meet. 
These are words of deeper sorrow 

Than the wail above the dead ; 



Both shall live, but every morrow 

Wake us from a widow'd bed. 
And when thou wouldst solace gather. 

When our child's first accents flow. 
Wilt thou teach her to say " Father !" 

Though his care she must forego ? 
When her little hands shall press thee, 

When her lip to thine is press'd. 
Think of him whose prayer shall bless thee. 

Think of him thy love had bless'd ! 
Should her lineaments resemble 

Those thou never more mayst see, 
Then thy heart will softly tremble 

With a pulse yet true to me. 
All my faults perchance thou knowest, 

All my madness none can know ; 
All my hopes where'er thou goest, 

Wither — yet with thee they go. 
Every feeling hath been shaken ; 

Pride, which not a world could bow. 
Bows to thee — by thee forsaken. 

Even my soul forsakes me now ! 
But 'tis done — all words are idle — 

Words from me are vainer still ; 
But the thoughts we cannot bridle 

Force their way without the will. — 
Fare thee well ! — thus disunited. 

Torn from every nearer tie, 
Sear'd in heart, and lone, and blighted— 

More than this I scarce cau die. 



A VOICE FROM MOUNT VERNON. 



Undistueb'd let the dust of the loved warrior lay, 
Where, living, he wish'd in his death to repose ; 

Where o'er him the leaves in the summer wind 
play. 
And beneath the Potomac in majesty flows. 

Let the spot where he died when his honours were 
full. 

Ever shield in its shade the renown'd of his race ; 
The blaze of whose glory shall never grow dull, 

Nor the ravage of ages his triumph deface. 

Ever bless'd in his sleep, unprofaned be his grave. 
Where man may in silence his honours bestow ; 

While the tributes which nature accords to the brave 
Above him profuse in sweet solitude grow. 

Though humble his tomb, yet sublime is his name, 
Immortal in blessings he will'd to mankind ; 

And time, to eternity bearing his fame. 
Shall tell with his triumphs the worth of his mind. 

Save when luU'd by the song of the sky-cleaving 
bird. 

The splash of the stream, or the rush of the wind; 
Or the pace of the pilgrim in solitude heard^ 

There pillow'd in peace, and in glory reclined. 



As the oak, that in majesty spread to the skies 
Sinks, eumber'd with honours and age, to the 
ground ; 

So, proud in his fall, let him sleep where he lies, 
His dust with no vain mausoleum be crown'd. 

The chisel-wrought statue may sink to decay ; 

The monument fall where it tower'd sublime ; 
The column to ruins slow crumble away. 

But his name shall outlast all the trophies of time. 

Though the transports of praise, and the triumphs 

of art. 

And tributes may swell the renown of his name ; 

Yet the homage that flows from the free-throbbing 

heart 

Is the meed of his worth and the test of his fame. 

Revered by his country, the pride of mankind ; 

Earth in him doth the richest of relics contain ; 
Then, in Vernon's green bosom for ever enshrined. 

Let his bones as removeless as mountains remain. 

As calm as the river that rolls by his tomb. 
As fix'd as the rocks on his green-swelling shore. 

Let him slumber enshrouded in silence and gloom, 
While freedom survives, or the world shall endure. 



THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 43T 



THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY COLUMBUS. 

BY WASHINGTON IRVING. 

On the morning of the 7th of Octobex', at sunrise, several of the ad- 
miral's crew thought they beheld land in the west, but so indistinctly 
that no one ventured to proclaim it, lest he should be mistaken, and 
forfeit all chance of the reward; the Nina, however, being a good sailor, 
pressed' forward to ascertain the fact. In a little while a flag was hoisted 
at her mast-head, and a gun discharged, being the preconcerted signals 
for land. New joy was awakened throughout the little squadron, and 
every eye was turned to the west. As they advanced, however, their 
cloud-built hopes faded away, and before evening the promised land had 
faded into air. The crews now sank into a degree of dejection propor- 
tioned to their recent excitement, when new circumstances occurred to 
arouse them. Columbus, having observed great flights of small field- 
birds going towards the south-west, concluded they must be secure of 
some neighbouring land, where they would find food and a resting-place. 
He knew the importance which the Portuguese voyagers attached to 
the flight of birds, by following which they had discovered most of 
their islands. He had now come seven hundred and fifty leagues, the 
distance at which he had computed to find the island of Cipango ; as 
there was no appearance of it, ho might have missed it through some 
mistake in the latitude. He determined, therefore, on the evening of 
the 7th October to alter his course to the west-south-west, the direction 
in which the birds generally flew, and continue that direction for at 
least two days. After all, it was no great deviation from his main course, 
and would meet the wishes of the Pinzons, as well as be inspiring to 
his followers generally. For three days they stood in this direction, and 
the further they went the more frequent and encouraging were the signs 
of land. Flights of small birds of various colours, some of them such 
as sing in the fields, came flyiug about the ships, and they continued 
towards the south-west, and others were heard also flying by in the 
night. Tunny-fish played about the smooth sea ; and a heron, a pelican, 
and a duck were seen, all bound in the same direction. The herbage 
which floated by the ships was fresh and green, as if recently from land ; 
and the air, as Columbus observes, was sweet and fragrant as April 
breezes in Seville. All these, however, were regarded by the crews as 
so many delusions beguiling them on to destruction ; and when, on the 
evening of the third day, they beheld the sun go down upon a shoreless 
horizon, they broke forth in clamorous turbulence. They exclaimed 
against this obstinacy in tempting fate by continuing on into a bound- 
less sea. They insisted upon turning homeward, and abandoning the 
voj^age as hopeless. Columbus endeavoiired to pacify them by gentle 
words, and promises of large rewards; but finding that they only in- 
creased in clamour, he assumed a decided tone. He told them it was 
useless to murmur ; the expedition had been sent by the sovereigns to 
2m 2 



438 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

seek the Indies ; and happen what might he was determined to perse- 
vere, until, by the blessing of G-od, he should accomplish the enterprise. 
Columbus was now at open defiance with his crew, and his situation be- 
came desperate. Fortunately, however, the manifestations of neigh- 
bouring land were such on the following day as no longer to admit of a 
doubt. 

Besides a quantity of fresh weeds, such as grow in rivers, they saw a 
green-fish, of a kind which keeps about rocks ; then a branch of thorns 
with berries on it, and recently separated from the tree, floated by them ; 
then they picked up a reed, a small board, and above all a staffs artifi- 
cially carved. All gloom and mutiny now gave way to sanguine expec- 
tation ; and throughout the day each one was eagerly on the watch, in 
hopes of being the first to discover the long-sought-for land. In the 
evening, when, according to invariable custom on board the admiral's 
ship, the mariners had sung the salve regina, or vesper hymn to the 
Virgin, he made an impressive address to his crew. He pointed out 
the goodness of God in thus conducting them by such soft and favoura- 
ble breezes across the tranquil ocean, cheering their hopes continually 
with fresh signs, increasing as their fears augmented, and thus guiding 
them to a promised land. He now reminded them of the orders he had 
given on leaving the Canaries, that after sailing westward seven hun- 
dred leagues, they should not make sail after midnight. Present ap- 
pearances authorized such a precaution. He thought it probable that 
they would make land that very night; he ordered, therefore, a vigilant 
look-out to be kept from the forecastle, promising to whomsoever should 
make the discovery a doublet of velvet, in addition to the pensions 
given by the sovereigns. The breeze had been fresh all day, with more 
sea than usual, and they had made great progress. At sunset they had 
stood again to the west, and were ploughing the waves at rapid rate, 
the Pinta keeping the lead, from her superior sailing. The greatest 
animation prevailed throughout the ships; not an eye was closed that 
night. As the evening darkened, Columbus took his station at the top 
of the castle or cabin, on the high pooiD of his vessel. However he 
might carry a cheerful and confident countenance during the day, it was 
to him a time of the most painful anxiety ; and now, when he was 
wrapped from observation by the shades of night, he maintained an in- 
tense and unremitting watch, ranging his eye along the dusky horizon, 
in search of the most vague indications of land. Suddenly about ten 
he thought he beheld a light glimmering at a distance. Fearing that 
his eager hopes might deceive him, he called to Pedro Gutierez, a gen- 
tleman of the king's bed-chamber, and inquired whether he saw a light 
in that direction ; the latter replied in the affirmative. 

Columbus, yet doubtful that it might be some delusion of the fancy, 
called Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, and made the same inquiry. By the 
time the latter had ascended the round-house, the light had disappeared. 
They saw it once or twice afterwards in sudden and passing gleams, as 
if it were a torch in the bark of a fisherman, rising and sinking with the 
waves, or in the hand of some person on shore, borne up and down as 
he walked from house to house. So transient and uncertain were these 



THE DISCOVERT OF AMERICA. 439 

gleams that few attached any importance to them ; Columbus, however, 
considered them as certain signs of land, and, moreover, that the land 
was inhabited. They continued their course until two in the morning, 
when a gun from the Pinta gave the joyful signal of the land. It was 
fii'st discovered by a mariner named Rodrigo de Triana ; but the reward 
was afterwards adjudged to the admiral, for having previously perceived 
the light. 

The land was now clearly seen about two leagues distant, whereupon 
they took in sail, and lay to, waiting impatiently for the dawn. The 
thoughts and feelings of Columbus in this little space of time must have 
been tumultuous and intense. At length, in spite of every difficulty 
and danger, he had accomplished his object. The great mystery of the 
ocean was revealed ; his theory, which had been the scoff of sages, was 
triumphantly established ; he had secured to himself a glory which must 
be as durable as the world itself. It it difficult even for the imagination 
to conceive the feelings of such a man at the moment of so sublime a 
discovery. What a bewildering crowd of conjectures must have thronged 
upon his mind as to the land which lay in darkness ! That it was fruit- 
ful was evident from the vegetables which floated from its shores. He 
thought, too, that he perceived in the balmy air the fragrance of aromatic 
groves. The moving light which he had beheld proved that it was the 
residence of man. But what were its inhabitants ? Were they like 
those of the other parts of the globe ? or were they some strange and mon- 
strous race, such as the imagination in those times was prone to give all 
remote and unknown regions ? Had he come upon some wild island 
far in the Indian sea ? or was this the famed Cipango itself, the object 
of his golden fancies ? A thousand speculations of the kind must have 
swarmed upon him, as, with his anxious crews, he waited for the night 
to pass away ; wondering whether the morning light would reveal a 
savage wilderness, or dawn upon spicy groves, and glittering fanes, and 
gilded cities, and all the splendour of oriental civilization. It was on the 
morning of Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, that Columbus first beheld 
the New World. When the day dawned he saw before him a level and 
beautiful island, several leagues in extent, of great freshness and verdure, 
and covered with trees like a continual orchard. Though every thing 
appeared in the wild luxuriance of untamed nature, yet the island was 
evidently populous, for the inhabitants were seen issuing from the woods, 
and running from all parts of the shore, where they stood gazing at the 
ships. They were all perfectly naked ; and from their attitude and 
gestures, appeared to be lost in astonishment. Columbus made signal 
for the ships to cast anchor, and the boats to be manned and armed. 
He entered his own boat, richly attired in scarlet, and bearing the royal 
standard; whilst Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and Vincent Janez his brother, 
put off in company in their boats, each bearing the banner of the enter- 
prise, emblazoned with a green cross, having on each side the letter F. 
and I., the initials of the Castilian monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, sur- 
mounted by crowns. As they approached the shores they were refreshed 
by the sight of the ample forests, which in those climates have extraordi- 
nary beauty of vegetation. They beheld fruits of tempting hue, but 



440 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

unknown kind, growing among the trees which* overhung the shores. 
The purity and suavity of the atmosphere, the crystal transparency of 
the seas which bathe these islands, give them a wonderful beauty, and 
must have had their efiect upon the susceptible feelings of Columbus. 
No sooner did he land than he threw himself upon his knees, kissed the 
earth, and returned thanks to Grod with tears of joy. His example was 
followed by the rest, whose hearts indeed overflowed with the same 
feelings of gratitude. Columbus then, rising, drew his sword, displayed 
the royal standard, and assembling round him the two captains, with 
Rodrigo de Escobid, notary of the armament, Rodrigo Sanchez, and the 
rest who had landed, he took solemn possession in the name of the 
Castilian sovereigns, giving the island the name of San Salvador, 
Having complied with the requisite forms and ceremonies, he now called 
upon all present to take the oath of obedience to him as admiral and 
viceroy, representing the persons of the sovereigns. The feelings of the 
crew now burst forth in the most extravagant transports. They had 
recently considered themselves devoted men, hurrying forward to destrucr 
tion ; they now looked upon themselves as favourites of fortune, and 
gave themselves up to the most unbounded joy. They thronged round 
the admiral in their overflowing zeal. Some embraced him, others 
kissed his hands. Those who had been most mutinous and turbulent 
during the voyage were now most devoted and enthusiastic. Some 
begged favours of him as a man who had already wealth and honours in 
his gift. Many abject spirits who had outraged him by their insolence, 
now crouched as it were at his feet, begging pardon for all the trouble 
they had caused him, and oflering for the future the blindest obedience 
to his commands. The natives of the island, when, at the dawn of day, 
they beheld the ships, with their sails set, hovering on their coast, had 
supposed them some monsters which had issued from the deep during 
the night. They had crowded to the beach, and watched their move- 
ments with awful anxiety. Their veering about apparently without 
eff'ort, the shifting and furling of their sails, resembling huge wings, filled 
them with astonishment. When they beheld their boats approach the 
shore, and a number of strange beings clad in glittering steel, or raiment 
of various colours, landing upon the beach, they fled in aflFright to their 
woods. Finding, however, that there was no attempt to pursue nor molest 
them, they gradually recovered from their terror, and approached the 
Spaniards with great awe; frequently prostrating themselves on the 
earth, and making signs of adoration. During the ceremony of taking 
possession they remained gazing in timid admiration at the complexion, 
the beards, the shining armour, and splendid dress of the Spaniards. 
The admiral particularly attracted their attention, from his commanding 
height, his air of authority, his dress of scarlet, and the deference which 
was paid him by his companions; all of which pointed him out to be the 
commander. 

When they had still further recovered from their fears, they approached 
the Spaniards, touching their beards, and examined their hands and faces, 
admiring their whiteness. Columbus, pleased with their simplicity, their 
gentleness, and the confidence they reposed in beings who must have 



ENOKMOUS CANNON. 441 

appeared to tliem so strange and formidable, suffered their scrutiny with 
perfect acquiescence. The wondering savages were won by this benig- 
nily : they now supposed that the ships had sailed out of the crystal 
firmament which bounded their horizon, or that they had descended from 
abo7e on their ample wings, and these marvellous beings were inhabi- 
tants of the skies. 



ENOEMOUS CANNON. 

One Orban, an Hungarian metal-founder, having passed over from the 
emperor's into the sultan's service, received so many gifts and such a 
liberal appointment from his new master, that had he been offered but a 
fourth part as much by the Greek ministry, he would never have 
dreamed of quitting the imperial city. Mohammed inquired of him 
whether he could cast a cannon capable of crumbling the walls of Con- 
stantinople ? " It is in my power," replied the Hungarian, " to cast a can- 
non of any calibre that is desired, and grind the walls of Constantinople 
and Babylon into powder ; I will answer for my science extending thus 
far, but I cannot pronounce to what extent the shot will range." The 
sultan gave him directions to proceed with the casting, but not to trouble 
himself about the range of the shot, which should be subsequently deter- 
mined. As a specimen of his skill, Orban cast a cannon for the great 
tower on the Bosphorean Channel, and a trial of its range was made upon 
the first vessel which sailed past without hauling in her sails. A Vene- 
tian ship, commanded by one Rici, was made use of as a target, and 
afforded satisfactory evidence of the perfectness of the casting, as well as 
the range of the shot. It was struck, severed asunder, and sunk. The 
captain and thirty of his crew escaped the dangers of the turbulent cur- 
rent in a boat, but, on reaching the shore, fell into the hands of the 
Turkish garrison. They were loaded with fetters, and brought before 
the sultan at Didymotichon; by his orders the sailors were beheaded, 
the captain impaled, and their dead bodies exposed to rot in the open 
air. This barbarous scene was witnessed by Ducas the historian, who 
was a resident at Didymotichon at that period. 

Mohammed was so perfectly satisfied with the founder's skill, and the 
result of the trial, that he directed the construction of a prodigious bat- 
tering piece, twice as large as the first; in fact, the largest which is 
recorded in the annals of the " tormentorum bellicorum." It vomited 
stone balls twelve spans in circumference and twelve hundred pounds 
in -weight; was moved with great difficulty by fifty pair of oxen, and was 
committed to the manipulation of seven hundred men. 

When the casting was completed, the piece was transported to the 
gate of the palace Dechthannuma, (or the spectacle of the world,) a loff.y 
pile which had just been finished at Adrianople ; and on this spot it was, 
for the first time, loaded with infinite trouble. 

Notice was then given to the inhabitants, that it would be discharged 



442 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

the next morning ; it was feared that without such a warning, the terror 
occasioned by its repprt might have been attended with the most disas- 
trous conseqiiences. The morning dawned, the piece was fired oif, an 
immense cloud of smoke enveloped the whole city, its thunders were 
heard for several hours in the distance, and the shot buried itself a fathom 
deep in the ground, at the distance of a mile from the spot whence it 
was discharged. By the trepidation which it spread far and wide, 
this enormous masterpiece of pyrotechny at least bespoke the gigantic 
schemes of conquest on which the grasping mind of its owner was 
intent. 

This cannon, together with two smaller pieces, which discharged balls 
of 160 pounds weight, was subsequently employed at the siege of Con- 
stantinople, where it was stationed opposite the gate of St. Koman's, which 
was afterwards denominated the '' Cannongate," a name it has retained 
to the pi-esent day. It consumed two hours in loading, and, on the first 
day, was discltarged seven times, the eighth firing was on the second day, 
when it gave the signal for an attack. Though it afterwards bursted, 
and destroyed its founder, it was speedily repaired and continued to be 
used seven times a day, but without producing the efifects which had 
been anticipated from it. — Von Hammer's History of the Turks, 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 

BY THE MILFORD BARD. 
"Light is travelling to the West." 

"A large and highly respectable meeting of the citizens of Washington, of various 
religious denominations, was held in that city on the 16th of October, 1831, to take into 
consideration the resolution of the American Sunday-school Union, adopted at the an- 
niversary of May, 1831, to supply the valley of the Mississippii with Sunday-schools in 
two years from that time. 

"The attendance of a large number of the members of both Houses of Congress (seve- 
ral of whom took part in the proceedings) gave peculiar interest to the occasion. The 
chairman, Mr. Grundy, Member of Congress from Tennessee, stated the object of the 
meeting to be to carry the following resolution into effect : — Resolved, That the Ameri- 
can Sunday-school Union, in reliance upon Divine aid, wiU, within two years, establish 
a Sunday-school in every destitute place, where it is practicable, throughout the valley 
of the Mississippi." — Supplement to the Saturday Evening Post. 

It is with peculiar pleasure that I take up the pen, just relinquished, 
to add another trophy to the modern march of mind — to add another 
tribute to the triumphs of learning and liberty. The heart of the phil- 
anthropist leaps with pleasure at the prospect that religion, hand in 
hand with learning, is about to illuminate the minds of more than three 
hundred thousand children, scattered in the vales and villages of the 
great valley of the Mississippi. Most glorious undertaking ! The cynic 
may smile at the idea, and the infidel laugh to scorn the noble intention; 
but there is perhaps many a germ of genius in that valley, destined, by 
the aid of a Sunday-school, to rise to the pinnacle of human glory. Go 
search the records of renown. It is not to colleges we are to look alone 
for great '-and good men. The Saviour of mankind chose his disciples 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 443 

from the fishing-boat ; and many of the most illustrious characters that 
ever illuminated the world, rose by the aid of as humble an institution 
as that which we are contemplating. Doctor Herschel, who with the 
eye of a philosopher searched out and added another world to the solar 
system, was a fifer-boy in the army; Ferguson, the very sun of science, 
was a poor weaver, and learned to read by hearing his father teach an 
elder brother. Search the record of our Revolution, and the names of 
Sherman, of Franklin, and many others may be adduced as evidence of 
the truth of the position. 

Upon the culture of the intellect depends the glory of nations and the 
stability of empires. When Homer sang and Hesiod wrote, Greece 
was ascending that pinnacle from whence the flood of her glory gushed 
and still gleams upon the minds of men. When Seneca laid down the 
grand principles of morality, and Cicero shook the forum with the 
thunders of his eloquence, then Rome, the city of the Caesars, flourished, 
and Virgil sang her the glory of the globe. But when the red sons of 
rapine rushed from the hills, when the Goths and vile Vandals beat like 
a cataract at the gates of Italy, she fell like the Colossus at Rhodes, and 
became the " Niobe of nations," recognised alone in the renown of her 
relics and the grandeur of her ruins. The destiny as well as durability 
of a nation depends upon the culture of the mind. Rome held, even in 
the dark ages, and still holds, a respectable standing among the nations 
for her science } but Greece, unhappy Greece, the very last gleam of 
her glory was extinguished in the blaze of Byzantium. The last star of 
her learning that had enlightened the world went down in the long 
night of barbarism, and the last remnant of her renown was annihilated 
in the ravages of the unrelenting and merciless Moslem. The tyrant 
Turk left her nothing by which she might recognise her former great- 
ness and triumphs, but the tombs of her saints and sages, and the page 
of her imperishable fame. But the luminary of liberty hath again risen 
on her shores, and the light of learning and religion again gladdens her 
bosom ; she may shine again among the noblest of nations. 

That knowledge is power may be read in every page of history and 
every achievement of man. The rise and ruin of empires, the flourishing 
and fall of rulers, are pregnant with the truth of this aphorism. We 
are informed that the single arm of Archimedes was enabled by his 
knowledge to defend Syracuse against the legions of Rome, and to defy 
the wrath of the world. To him alone the launch of a ship was but 
pastime, and for his amusement he set fire to whole navies. The press, 
that mighty engine of intelligence, and the compass, the polar-star of 
commerce and curiosity, are the offsprings of human knowledge and 
invention. By the aid of steam we are enabled to resist the elements, 
and matter even on the land is transported over space with the velocity 
of mind. Printing, the great pioneer of knowledge, has disseminated 
intelligence in a tenfold ratio. All the glory of ancient times, all the 
oracles of Athens, of Ephesus, and the world, may not be compared to 
this in the greatness of its design and the brilliance of its benefits. 

Nor less is the power of knowledge in other respects. Why does 
gigantic Russia, the terror of the Turks, tremble at the armies of Eng- 



444 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

land ? Why, when the cloud of battle shrouds the heavens and darkens 
the orb of day, does the savage fly from the sons of civilization ? Ay, 
why did the Tartar hordes and Arab armies of Africa sink beneath the 
valour of the fair cheeked children of France ? And why did the sunburnt 
Gothics of the Ganges yield when the British battle-cry was heard on 
the banks of the golden river ? — On the contrary, why was the Russian 
successful in triumphing over the Turk, and planting his standard on 
the walls of Stamboul, when a thousand sabres started and streamed 
with the blood of the bravest heroes ? It was the result of the superior- 
ity of mind over matter, of intelligence over iterance and barbarity. 
This same superiority of mind enabled one man to rule Sparta, and lay 
down a code of laws for her future government. That illustrious man 
was Lycurgus, the best benefactor of his country. 

In the dark ages, the era of feudal despotism, when learning was 
locked up in the convent, the closet, and the castle, when man was the 
absolute master of his fellow-man, and the chains of tyranny rattled on 
the arms of the slave, the light and power of knowledge were made more 
evident by the great circle of darkness which surrounded them. In 
those days of romance, the infant was cradled amid the clash of arms 
and the tumult of battle ; to him valour was virtue, and a knowledge of 
war was wisdom. Then came the crusades, and religion consisted in 
grappling with the Mohammedan for the sepulchre of the Saviour. Then 
^he aspiring youth knew no piety but patriotism, no science but super- 
stition, and his education taught him that to conquer on the field of fight 
was the very essence of philosophy. About this era arose the orders of 
knighthood, among which the Knights Templar were distinguished. 
Learning became hereditary among them, and never was the might of 
mind more terribly triumphant. The great Charles of Germany was 
their patron, and, headed by the venerable Valette, they shook the throne 
of the incensed Solyman, and bade defiance to the tyrants of Turkey. 
For six or seven hundred years they struck terror to the infidels, and 
hung out their banner in the cause of Christianity. During that long 
period of despotism and decay, they were the asgis of Europe, and a 
shield to the Christian world against which the spear of oppression rattled 
in vain. In the eleventh century, when the cloud of war darkened the 
East, and a volcano broke from the mountains of Imaus — when the 
Saracen crescent was waved by Saladin on the walls of the holy city, 
then was seen a tempest even more terrible rolling up from the West. 
Then the dark Iberian, the gay Gaul, and the gentle German were seen 
battling amid the burning sands of Syria ; and then the Albanian and the 
Arab unsheathed their glittering swords for the glorious combat. Then, 
too, did the victorious sword of the Templar gleam and glitter in the 
sunbeam, and mighty was its blow. Jerusalem may bear witness. Ay, 
go and meditate amid her melancholy ruins — go survey the tall temples 
of Askelon laid low in the dust, and muse amid the scenes of Samaria, 
celebrated in the annals of that proud and imperious age. The sublimi- 
ty of those solitudes only exists now in the i-uins of their former renown, 
and the recollection of departed grandeur. The flowery fields and pavi- 
lions of Palestine^ where mirth and music once resounded, war hath 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 445 

desolated; and Calvary, the covert of the lamb, hatli become the lair 
of the lion. 

Nor is learning more powerful and beneficial to the state than pure 
religion and her handmaid morality. But, in the language of the elo- 
quent Phillips, " I would have her pure, unpensioned, unstipendiary ', I 
would have her, in a word, like the bow of the firmament : her summit 
should be the sky ; her boundaries the horizon ; but the only colour 
that adorned her should be caught from the tear of earth as it exhaled, 
and glowed and glittered in the sunbeams of the heavens." Yes, and I 
would have her bright as the crystal current from the rock, and sincere 
as the smile of infant innocence when it slumbers on the bosom that 
bore it. I would have it great, but not gloomy ; magnificent, but not 
mercenary ; and powerful, but not ambitious. 

It is not pure religion — that blissful harbinger of hope and dove of hea- 
ven — that aims at dominion, and to unite the congress to the conference, 
and the crosier to the crown. No ; it is political hypocrisy that hath no 
hope ; it is restless, ruthless bigotry that knows no blush. Pure religion 
never instituted the Inquisition, never sanctioned the murdering of the 
martyrs, or introduced the fagot and the fire. No, she never sighed for 
a union of the church and state. These crimes have been committed 
by those who looked with anxious eyes upon the glittering grandeur 
of a throne, and bowed down before the shrine of superstition and 
bigotry. 

But it is strange that the effort to educate the children of the West 
should beget fears for the safety of the state. As well might we assert 
that to sever the chains of a slave would excite vengeance in his soul, 
and enlist him an enemy against his liberator. Does learning shed no 
light on the human intellect ? Does gladness in the benefited beget no 
gratitude to the benefactor? To decide to the contrary is inconsistent 
with reason. Enlighten the minds of those children, and they will see 
the dangers they are to avoid ; they will be so many bulwarks to the 
state in the day of darkness and danger. 

But who are the men who advocate the measure of the Sunday-school 
Union, which proposes to send light into the wilderness of the West ? 
Who are those who are in favour of cherishing the germs of genius now 
scattered over the prairies of the great valley of the Mississippi ? They 
are some of the most illustrious statesmen and heroes our state or repub- 
lic hath produced ; some of the most eloquent and eminent divines en- 
rolled in the cause of Christianity. They are men of various sects and 
societies, men whose only ambition is to fix the permanency of our insti- 
tutions on the firm foundation of education and liberty. They are men 
of piety and patriotism ; they are philosophers and philanthropists. They 
are men who look with delight upon the temple of our devotion as it 
kisses the clouds and dips its head in heaven; but they will never agree 
that the flag of our freedom shall move upon its walls. The cause of 
education is the cause of Christianity and of our country. The present 
measure is advocated by the great and the good; by the wise and the 
wealthy. Ay, a voice from the tombs of oriental saints and sages — a 
voice from the gory graves of the Revolution — a voice from the sepulchres 
2N 



446 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

of the saviours of our country, and a voice from the vault of Vernon 
come stealing on the Sabbath silence, approbating the grand and glorious 
enterprise. The very simplicity of the undertaking makes it sublime. 
Plow cheering the idea, that more than three hundred thousand children 
shall be made moral ; be taught to read the most beautiful of books, and 
discharged with a Testament for the paltry sum of what, as one of the 
gentlemen at the meeting observed, we would pay for a pin, a feather, 
or a flower. The retrenchment of a single riband ; the sacrifice of a sin- 
gle ticket to the theatre or ball-room, might raise up and give the impulse 
in the West to another Washington in war, or another Wirt in eloquence, 
to another Jefferson in the presidential chair, or to another Jay in the 
councils of his country. There is talent among the children of those 
pioneers who subdued the wild wilderness, and peopled those sublime 
solitudes of the West, where no human foot had trod and no eye pene- 
trated, save those of the unhappy children of the forest, the aborigines of 
the country. Man is naturally a religious creature. Had the light of the 
gospel never illuminated his mind, and the knowledge of his own destiny 
and dignity hereafter never dawned upon his understanding, still reason 
would have taught him a belief in the existence of a superior Being. He 
would have admired his wisdom in every leaf and every flower that 
adorns the earth ; like the Hindoo, he would have seen him in the set- 
ting sun; and like our own Indians, he would have worshipped the Great 
Spirit as he passed in his chariot on the storm of night. But happily 
for us, the gospel has gone forth with glad tidings. The story of the 
Saviour's sufferings and sorrows — of his crucifixion on Calvary — was one 
of the first lessons imprinted upon our minds in the hours of infancy. 
As first impressions last through life, it is our duty to extend and imprint 
this necessary knowledge on the minds of the rising generation. The 
gospel has been sent to the heathen children of Hindostan and Japan ; 
to the Arab and the South Sea Islander ; and the time is rapidly arriving 
when the ^thiop and the Arab will own the same faith with the English- 
man and American ; when the Hottentot and Tartar will extend the hand 
of good fellowship to the Protestant and the Pope. But in those glorious 
triumphs abroad, the darkness which enshrouds the intellect of our own 
country should not be forgotten. Infidelity is abroad, and the brilliance 
of her tenets and the beauty of her blandishments are bowing the minds 
of men. She hath erected her altar, and she hath her oracles, her 
priests, and her divinities. The doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras have 
burst from the billow of oblivion which had buried them beneath the 
rubbish of three thousand years, and are again taught by the pagan 
priests of modern times. 

But nay, there are those who are up and doing. There are those whose 
lives have almost been spent in disseminating the light of religion and 
learning to the sons of darkness. Most high shall be their reward in 
heaven. The pride of ancestry, as an incentive to emulation, may be 
just; to read over a long list of illustrious predecessors may be laudable ; 
but when man looks back to a long existence devoted to the glory of 
God and the benefit of his country, then it is that life becomes truly 
illustrious, and the grave glorious. Such are some of those who advo- 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. " 447 

cate the measure which I have endeavoured to delineate. Such are those 
who would enlighten the intellect and moralize the mind of one of the 
fairest and most flourishing sections of our country. When the foam of 
the last wave of time shall whiten their heads, and the blast of the last 
trump shall echo in their ears, the recollection of the past shall light up 
the gloom of the grave, and soothe and soften the pangs of dissolution. 
And when they shall have long slumbered in the city of the silent ; when 
every trace of the unhappy Indian shall have been buried in oblivion ; 
when other cities shall arise in the great valley of the Mississippi, and 
this republic shall rival and surpass the ancient glories of Greece and 
Rome, then shall the memory of their labours still live, and their monu- 
ments be inscribed with characters of imperishable fame. Ages hence, 
when some youth shall point to a modern Athens; to another Rome on 
the rivers of the West, and ask of what manner of people the fallen race 
of the forest were, and concerning those who enlightened the minds that 
achieved the glorious foundations of greatness ; then will some venerable 
sire, some Plato, Cicero, or Seneca, point with pride to the catalogue of 
renowned names, names of those now living, who disseminated the gos- 
pel and the light of learning in the West. 

Mind constitutes the majesty of man — virtue his true nobility. The 
tide of improvement, which is now flowing like another Niagara through 
the land, is destined to roll on downward to the latest posterity; and it will 
bear to them on its bosom our virtues, our vices, our glory, or our shame, 
or whatever else we may transmit as an inheritance. It, then, in a great 
measure depends upon the present, whether the moth of immorality and 
the vampire of luxury shall prove the overthrow of the republic; or 
knowledge and virtue, like pillars, shall support her against the whirl- 
winds of war, ambition, corruption, and the remorseless tooth of time. 
Let no frown fall upon the hopes of the philanthropist in the cause of the 
Sunday-school. If its power individually is humble, so is the labour of 
the silkworm ; but the united product is immense, it becomes the wealth 
of a whole empire. We despise the single insect crushed wantonly in 
our path ; but, united, they have depopulated cities, destroyed fertile 
fields, and struck terror to nations, becoming more formidable than Cae- 
sar or Scipio ; than Hannibal or Alexander. The united effort of Sunday- 
schools may carry intelligence and virtue to millions of minds, nor does 
the accumulation of influence cease with their labours, for millions yet 
unborn may reap the tenfold harvest. Active education is ever on the 
increase; like money, its interest becomes compound, doubles, and in the 
course of years, becomes a vast national treasury. Give your children 
fortunes without education, and at least half the number will go down to 
the tomb of oblivion, perhaps to ruin. Give them education, and they 
will accumulate fortunes; they will be a fortune themselves, to their coun- 
try. It is an inheritance worth more than gold, for it buys true honour : 
they can neither spend nor lose it ; and through life it proves a friend — 
in death, a delicious consolation. Give your children education, and no 
tyrant will triumph over your liberties. Give your children education, 
and the silver-shod horse of the despot will never trample on the ruins 
of the fabric of your freedom. 



448 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



FEMALE HEROISM. 

A CORRESPONDENT of the New York Evening Post, in a letter dated 
Natchez, on the 19th of August, 1825, gives the following account of a 
transaction which occurred twelve or fifteen years ago in Indiana, soon 
after the first settlement of that country by the whites. The writer 
states that the story was related to him a short time since by one of the 
parties concerned. William and Mary, the persons here alluded to, were 
a young farmer and his wife, who were very pleasantly situated on a fine 
farm, and with three beautiful children, were in the enjoyment of bless- 
ings which rarely fall to the lot of the settlers of a new country. 

" In this situation,'' says the account, '■' matters stood at the memora- 
ble battle of Tippecanoe, when the whole frontier, and indeed the whole 
state, was thrown into commotion and alarm. Many depredations and 
massacres were committed by the Indians, and some deeds of dreadful 
note were done, which never could be satisfactorily accounted for. 
The brave and humane General Harrison, who commanded at that time, 
had erected in various parts of the state what were termed lines of block- 
houses, in which were posted detached parties of soldiers and militia, 
who acted as picket guards to the frontier inhabitants ; they also served 
as a line of communication from post to post, and as a place of refuge 
for the weak and defenceless from the approach of an enemy. One of 
these lines of block-houses extended through the settlement in which 
William lived, and most of the inhabitants had taken shelter within their 
walls. He, however, from some cause or other, had neglected so to do, 
as well as one of his nearest neighbours. One morning, William had 
taken his rifle and gone some miles on business, promising to return 
home as early in the evening as possible. He had not been gone more 
than an hour, when Mary, who was a few rods from the house with her 
children, was alarmed by the sudden and horrid yell of the savages — two 
of them at the same time appearing in the skirts of a wood, a few hun- 
dred yards distant. She instantly caught up the two children that were 
nearest her, and fled to the house : having placed them within the door, 
she was returning for the other, when she saw with agony that one of 
the Indians had already seized up her hapless child, while the other was 
making toward the house with lengthened strides, terrific yells, and 
uplifted tomahawk. What was to be done ? There was no alternative, 
and she retreated precipitately within, and scarce a moment left to secure 
the door on the inside with a wooden bar, when the Indian was at it, 
endeavouring to force it open ; but finding it much better secured than 
he had anticipated, he began to utter the most horrid execrations, and 
called his companion to his assistance. They both seemed to speak the 
English language perfectly, which not a little surprised Mary. They 
made various eft'orts to force open the door, all the while uttering the 
most dreadful threats, that if she did not open it and let them in, they 
would murder her child, and then burn down the house over her head. 
Alas, poor Mary ! she knew but too well that death was her portion, and 



FEMALE HEBOISM. 449 

persisted in keeping the door barred. They at length became desperate, 
finding themselves much foiled, and actually dashed the child's brains 
out against a tree that stood before the house, while the mother was look- 
ing through a small opening between the logs of the building. A dark- 
ness came over her eyes, her heart ceased to beat for a moment, and she 
sank upon her knees, for she could support herself no longer, and had 
almost fainted. She, however, soon rallied her faculties, offered up a fer- 
vent ejaculation to that Omnipotent Being who is all powerful to save, 
and arose. Her first thought was to conceal her children, open the door, 
and give herself up as a sacrifice to their vengeance, in hopes that her 
offspring might possibly be saved. This idea, however vain it might 
appear, was prevented from being put into execution, by one of the 
Indians exclaiming that he would come down the chimney. The Indian 
who had murdered the child had ascended the corner of the house by 
means of the projecting ends of the logs, and commenced descending the 
chimney. In this extremity, Mary had given up all for lost ; she was 
stooping to embrace her children, as she believed for the last time, when 
she thought of her straw bed. She immediately flew to it with the 
strength of an Amazon, tore open the ticking, and threw its contents upon 
the fire ; a full column of blaze and smoke ascended the chimney, while 
the murderous wretch was about midway between the top and bottom, 
and could neither ascend nor descend to extricate himself, before he had 
drawn into his lungs that fiery draft, which instantly suffocated him to 
death. He fell into the fire, and rolled upon the hearth a black and 
lifeless corpse; it now seemed as if the whole energy of Mary's mind 
had burst upon her; she caught up the tomahawk, which he still held in 
his ' death grasp,' and went deliberately and opened the door. The 
Indian on the outside, thinking it was his comrade, entered entirely off 
his guard, when the tomahawk of his accomplice was buried in the back 
of his head, and he fell dead on the floor. Mary instantly took her two 
remaining children in her arms, and fled to the nearest neighbour, and 
gave the alarm. The woman of the house seemed much agitated, and 
said her husband had gone out about half an hour before. She then 
proceeded on to another settler's, about a mile farther, and told what she 
had done. Three or four men who happened to be there at the time 
caught up their rifles, and proceeded immediately to William's residence, 
when on examination it was found — but it was too horrible to relate, 
they found that these worse than savage monsters were not Indians, but 
white men ! and that one of them was William's nearest neighbour, the 
owner of the house to which Mary had first fled for protection. It 
would seem, that knowing William was possessed of a few hundred dol- 
lars, he, in company with another wretch, who had been but a few 
weeks in the settlement, formed the horrid design of murdering the 
whole family in the disguise of Indians, and possessing themselves of 
the money. But a merciful God prevented them from entirely accom- 
plishing their object." 

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me ; and I 
caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. — Joh xsix. 13. 

tr.-i 29 



450 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



MAEY TO HER FALSE LOVER. 



Go, false one, go ; I will not shed 

A tear for one like thee ; 
What though my cherish'd hopes have fled, 

The world is still for me. 

1 will not shnn the friends "who still 
Would hid bright hope awake ; 

No, no, I'll wear contentment's smile, 
Although my heart should break. 

Thy broken faith, thy cold adieu 

I never can forget; 
But deem not, false one, that for yon 

I cherish a regret. 

'Tis true, no other form but thine 

E'er had a charm for me ; 
'Tis trxie, love rear'd a holy shrine, 

At which I worshipp'd thee. 



And, oh ! Hope's fairy visions bright, 

Pictur'd a joyous day; 
Till falsehood came its hues to blight. 

And then — it pass'd away. 

Thou earnest — it was not for thy bride, 

Ah ! no, it was to tell 
The love of other days had died. 

And bid a cold farewell. 

Well, be it so ; I did not say, 

Kemember plighted faith ; 
Nor urge thee, faithless one, to stay, 

I'd rather welcome death. 

1 did not weep, that we did part 

For ever — be it so ; 
If thou should win another's heart, 

Be faithful— false one, go. 



THE WIFE. 

' She flung her white arms around him : ' Thou art all that this poor heart can cling to.' 



I COULD have stemm'd misfortune's tide, 

And borne the rich one's sneer; 
Have braved the haughty glance of pride. 

Nor shed a single tear ; 
I could have smiled on every blow 

From life's full quiver thrown. 
While I might gaze on thee, and know 

I should not be alone. 

I could — I think Icould—ha.ve brook'd 

E'en for a time that thou 
Upon my fading face had look'd 

With less of love than now : 
For then, I should at least have felt 

The sweet hope still my own 
To win thee back — and while I dwelt 

On earth, not be alone. 



But thus to see, from day to day. 

Thy brightening eye and cheek. 
And watch thy life-sands waste away 

Uunumber'd, slowly, meek ; 
To meet thy smile of tenderness. 

And catch the feeble tone 
Of kindness ever breath'd to bless. 

And feel, I'll be alone : 

To mark thy strength each hour decay. 

And yet thy hopes grow stronger. 
As, tiU'd with heavenward trust, they say, 

" Earth may not claim thee longer;" 
Nay, dearest, 'tis too much — this heart 

Must break when thou art gone ; 
It must not be, we may not part, 

I could not live alone. 



WARREN'S ADDRESS 



TO THE AMERICAN SOLDIERS BEFORE THE BATTLE OF BUNKER'S HILL. 
BY PIERPOHT. 



Stand ! the ground's your own, my braves ! 
Will ye give it up to slaves f 
Will ye look for greener graves? 

Hope ye mercy still ? 
What's the mercy despots feel ! 
Hear it in that battle peal ! 
Read it on yon bristling steel ! 

Ask it— ye who will. 



Fear ye foes who kill for hire ? 
Will ye to your homes retire? 
Look behind you ! they're a fire ! 
And, before you, see 

* On the 17th of June, 1825, half a century from the day of the battle, the corner-stone of a granite moDU- 
jnent was laid on the ground where Warren fell. 



Who have done it !— From the vale 
On they come ! — and will ye quail? — 
Leaden rain and iron hail 
Let their welcome be ! 

In the God of battle trust ! 

Die we may — and die we must : — 

But, oh where can dust to dust 

Be consign'd so well. 
As where heaven its dews shall shed 
On the martyr'd patriot's bed, 
And the rocks shall raise their head* 

Of his deeds to tell ! 



SAND-STORM IN THE DESERT. 451 



SAND-STORM IN THE DESERT. 

Morning found me still in a wide and trackless waste of sand ; which, 
as the sun arose, was bounding by those flittering vapours which deceive 
the thirsty traveller with the belief that water is near ; and have thence 
obtained the name of the water of the desert. In vain I looked for the 
marks by which my friend Selim had taught me to recognise a place of 
refreshment. There was but too much cause to fear that I was now in 
one of those terrible tracts of dry and moving sand, in which no water 
is ever found, and which, sometimes, when set in motion by the wind, 
swallows up whole caravans and their conductors. Alas ! the morning 
light, so earnestly expected, only dawned to prove that I was surrounded 
by dangers I had never dreamed of. 

The wind, which blew so piercingly all night, lulled, as it generally 
does, towards morning ; but the hazy vapour, loaded with light particles 
of sand, through which the sun rose red as blood, gave warning that the 
calm would not continue long; nor had I pursued my course another 
hour before the roar of the desert-wind was heard, columns of dust 
began to rise in the horizon, and the air became gradually filled with 
driving sand. » 

As the wind increased, the whole plain around me, which had been 
heaped by former tempests into ridges, like the waves of a troubled sea, 
now got into motion ; the sand blew from off their crests, like spray 
from the face of the waters, and covered myself and horse with its dense 
eddies; while, often unable to distinguish the true course, my horse 
toiled over the ridges, sinking up to the very girths in the deep baffling 
substance. 

I continued for some hours to persevere, struggling against the fury 
of the gale, when my alarm increased, by observing that my horse, 
which hitherto had stood it out with admirable perseverance, even when 
his progress was most painfully impeded by the deep sand, now became 
terrified and restive. He snorted, reared, and appeared unable, as well 
as unwilling, to face the sharp drifting of the still increasing storm.^ In 
vain I soothed him, or urged him on with heels and hand; the animal, 
which had hitherto obeyed my voice almost like an intelligent being, 
now paid no attention to caresses or blows. In the several squalls that 
drove past at intervals, he fairly turned his back to them, and would not 
move ; and, even when the wind lulled for a little, he could hardly be 
forced to advance a step. 

I scorned to yield my life without a struggle, yet saw not the means 
of preserving it. To abandon my horse would have been in fact to give 
up hope; for I could not proceed a single mile on foot; yet to remain 
stationary, as I was forced to do by the terror of the animal, involved 
manifest destruction. Every thing that offered resistance to the torrent 
of sand, which sometimes poured alons the earth like a rapid stream of 
water, was overwhelmed in an incredibly short time : even when my 
horse stood still but for a few moments, the drift mounted higher than 



45^ FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

his knees ; and, as if sensible of the danger, he made furious efforts to 
extricate himself. 

Quite certain that my only hope lay in constant motion, and in the 
chance of gaining the leeward side of some hillock or mass of rocks 
that might afford a shelter till the storm should blow over, I gave up 
my true course, turned my back to the wind, and made all possible efforts 
to press forward ; and, at last when man and horse were exhausted, 
during a partial lull, I observed something like a rock, or mound of earth, 
looming through the dusky atmosphere. On approaching it, I discovered 
that it was the bank of an inconsiderable hollow, which was now nearly 
filled with sand, and the opposite side of which, being exposed to the 
wind, had, by the same means, become merely an inclined plane ; beneath 
this bank I fortunately retired, resolved to trust to its protection, rather 
than run the risk of a further progress with the imminent peril of perish- 
ing in the drifting sand, where vision could not extend for a space of 
many yards. — Frazer's Travels in Khorasan. 



ORIGIN OF YANKEE DOODLE. 

It is a known matter of history, tha<t in the early part of 1755, great 
exertions were made by the British ministry, at the head of which was 
the illustrious Earl of Chatham, for the reduction of the French power 
in the provinces of the Canadas. To carry the object into effect, Greneral 
Amherst, referred to in the letters of Junius, was appointed to the com- 
mand of the British arms in North-western America; and the British 
colonies in America were called upon for assistance, who contributed 
with alacrity their several quotas of men to effect the grand object of 
British enterprise. It is a fact still within the recollection of some of 
our oldest inhabitants here, that the British army lay encamped, in the 
summer of 1755, on the eastern banks of the Hudson, a little south of the 
city of Albany, on the ground now belonging to John I. Van Rensselaer, 
Esq. To this day vestiges of their encampment remain, and after a 
lapse of so many years, when a great proportion of the actors of those 
days have passed away, like the shadows from the earth, the inquisitive 
traveller can observe where they boiled their camp-kettles. It was this 
army, that, under the command of Abercrombie, was foiled with a severe 
loss in the attack on Ticonderoga, where the distinguished Howe fell 
at the head of his troops, in an hour that history has consecrated to his 
fame. In the early part of June, the eastern troops began to pour in, 
company after company ; and such a motley assemblage never before 
thronged together on such an occasion, unless an example may be found 
in the ragged regiment of Sir John Falstaff, of right merry and facetious 
memory. It would, said my worthy ancestor, who related to me the 
story, have relaxed the gravity of an anchorite to have seen the descend- 
ants of the Puritans marching through the streets of our ancient city, 
to take their stations on the left side of the British army, some with 
small coats, and others with no coats at all, as varied as the rainbow, 



DANIEL BOONE. 453 

some witli their hair cropped, like the army of Cromwell, and others with 
wigs whose curls flowed with grace around their shoulders. Their march, 
their accoutrements, and the whole arrangement of the troops, furnished 
matter of amusement to the wits of the British army. The music 
played the airs of two centuries ago ; the tout ensemble exhibited a sight 
to the wondering strangers that they had been unaccustomed to in their 
native land. Among the club of wits that belonged to the British army, 
there was a physician attached to the staif, by the name of Doctor Shack- 
burg, who combined with the science of the surgeon the skill and talents 
of a musician. 

To please brother Jonathan, he composed a tune, and with much 
gravity recommended it to the officers, as one of the most celebrated 
airs of martial music. The joke took, to the no small amusement of 
the British corps. Brother Jonathan esclaimed it was nat-ion fine, and 
in a few days nothing was heard but Yanlcee Doodle. Little did the 
author and his coadjutors then suppose that an air made for the purpose 
of levity and ridicule would be marked for such destinies. In twenty 
years from that time, our national march inspired the hearts of the heroes 
of Bunker's Hill, and, in less than thirty, Lord Cornwallis and his army 
marched into the American lines to the tune of Yanhee Doodle. 



DANIEL BOONE. 



The Illinois Magazine publishes the following letter, from a venerable 
citizen of Kentucky, relative to the hardy and adventurous huntsman 
who is so justly and universally regarded as the patriarch of that State. 
The brief narrative which it gives of the life and adventures of the fear- 
less and single-hearted father of the great West cannot fail to interest 
the general reader : — 

I received your letter, a few days since, requesting me to state what 
I knew of Colonel Daniel Boone. When a boy I knew him. He 
lived within a mile and a half of my father's, in Culpepper county, 
Virginia, for two years, and I frequently set up targets for him to shoot 
at. From thence he moved to North Carolina, and I saw no more of 
him until I met him in Kentucky in 1781. 

We were frequently together afterwards, and several times in the 
woods, surveying, in company, and a more agreeable, friendly companion 
I have never seen. In stature, I think he was about five feet ten inches 
high, and well proportioned. His appearance was fine, his manners 
easy, his mind strong and philosophic, his disposition mild and placid, 
and his character unimpeachable. A more friendly and hospitable man 
never lived. 

I will now inform you of what he told me relative to bis first discovery 
of Kentucky. He said that himself, his brother Squire, and a servant 
boy came to North Carolina, to take a fall hunt in Powell's valley, 
having hunted there the year before. He was hunting along the side 
of the Cumberland mountain, and discovered a gap or low place in the 
mountain, which he ascended to the top, and thence he imagined he 



454 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

could see the Oliio river. He thought in his own mind, that it was the 
most beautiful coimtry in the world. He returned to the camp, and 
informed his brother what he had seen, telling him that they must up 
and go across the mountain. They did so, and travelled on to Scagg's 
Creek, where the deer were so plenty that they soon loaded their seven 
horses with shaved skins, and he started his brother and the servant boy 
back with them to North Carolina. He told his brother to bring back 
to him as many horses as he could get, and he would have their loads 
ready against his return. He stayed and hunted there, and never saw 
the face of man for eight months to a day. He declared that he never 
enjoyed himself better in his life ; he had three dogs that kept his camp 
while he was hunting, and, at night, he would often lie by his fire and 
sing every song he could think of, while the dogs would sit round him, 
and give as much attention as if they understood every word he was 
saying. 

At the end of eight months, his brother and servant boy came to him 
with fourteen horses. His brother informed him that when he got into 
North Carolina with his peltry, the Indians had fallen upon the fron- 
tiers, and that he had to go, with others, against them. Boone had the 
packs nearly all ready, and, in a day or two, they loaded the horses and 
started for home. They travelled the first day, and until about ten 
o'clock the next day, when he saw four Indians, with as many horses, 
loaded with beaver fur. They were crossing each other, and seeing 
plainly that they must meet, he cautioned his brother and the servant 
boy not to let the Indians have their guns out of their hands ; for they 
would be sure to make an attempt to get them, under the pretence of 
wanting to examine them. The Indians endeavoured to get their guns, 
but they woi^ld not let them get possession of them. The Indians then 
went round Boone's horses, and drove them off with their own. Boone 
said he looked hard after them a while, and then (not thinking it prudent 
to attack four men, on their guard, with but one man and a boy to back 
him) he put off for home. They went on that day, and until nine or 
ten o'clock of the next. He then observed to his brother and the boy 
that if they would stick to him, he would turn about and follow the 
Indians even to their towns but he would have his skins and horses 
back. They agreed to it, and immediately pursued hard after them, 
and came in sight of them the fourth day. '•' Now," said Boone, " we 
must trail them on, until they stop to eat." 

The Indians at length halted, hoppled their horses, cooked, and ate ; 
Boone and his companions watching them all the while. He well knew 
that, having eaten, they would all lie down to sleep except one. They 
did so ; and the one who was on guard sat on a log at the head of the 
others, and Boone and his boys had to creep on all-fours for a hundred 
yards to get near enough to shoot. Boone then told his brother that 
he would take for his own mark the one on the log ; that he (the brother) 
must aim at the one on the right, and the boy at the one on the left; 
and that, when he gave the signal, they must fire, and keep loading and 
shooting, making as much noise and using as many different tones as 
they could. They fired, and he tilted his man over the log ; but the 



BURNING OF THE WESTERN PRAIRIES. 455 

otiiers bore him off. The Indians fled, and they followed for three- 
quarters of a mile, shooting and yelling ; then came back, gathered their 
own horses and those of the Indians, put on their packs and the packs 
of beaver fur, and drove them safe to his own house, in North Carolina. 
The above is just as he told it to me himself. 



BURNINa OF THE WESTERN PRAIRIES. 

"VVe have no means of determining at what period the fires began to 
sweep over these plains, because we know not when they began to be 
inhabited. It is quite possible that they might have been occasionally 
fired by lightning previous to the introduction of that element by human 
agency. At all events, it is very evident that as soon as fire began 
to be used in this country by its inhabitants, the annual burning of the 
prairie must have commenced. One of the peculiarities of this climate 
is the dryness of its summers and autumns. A drought often commences 
in August, which, with the exception of a few showers towards the close 
of that month, continues throughout the fall season. The immense 
mass of vegetation with which this fertile soil loads itself during the 
summer, is suddenly withered, and the whole surface of the earth is 
covered with combustible materials. This is especially true of the prai- 
ries, where the grass grows to the height of from six to ten feet, and, 
being entirely exposed to the sun and wind, dries with great rapidity. 
A single spark of fire falling anywhere upon the plains, at such a time, 
would instantly kindle a blaze, which would spread on every side, and 
continue its destructive course as long as it should find fuel. Travellers 
have described these fires as sweeping with a rapidity which renders it 
hazardous to fly before them. Such is not the case, or is true only of a 
few rare instances. The thick sward of the prairie presents a considerable 
mass of fuel, and off"ers a barrier to the progress of the flame, which is 
not easily surmounted. The fire advances slowly and with power. The 
heat is intense. The flame often extends across a wide prairie, and 
advances in a long line. No sight can be more sublime than to behold, 
in the night, a stream of several miles in breadth advancing across 
these wide plains, leaving behind it a black cloud of smoke, and throwing 
before it a vivid glare which lights up the whole landscape with the 
brilliancy of noonday. A roaring and crackling sound is heard like the 
rushing of a hurricane. The flame, which, in general, rises to the height 
of about twenty feet, is seen sinking and darting upwards in spires, 
precisely as the waves dash against each other, and as the spray flies up 
into the air ; and the whole appearance is often that of a boiling and 
flaming sea violently agitated. The progress of the fire is slow, and the 
heat so great that every combustible object in its course is consumed. 
Wo to the farmer whose ripe corn-fields extend into the prairie, and 
who suff'ers the tall grass to grow in contact with his fences ! The whole 
labour of the year is swept away in a few hours. But such accidents 
are comparatively unfrequent, as the preventive is simple and easily 
applied. — Illinois Magazine. 



456 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



TREASURES OF THE DEEP. 



When we reflect on the number of curious monuments consigned to 
the bed of the ocean in the course of every naval war from the earliest 
times, our conceptions are greatly raised respecting the multiplicity of 
lasting memorials which man is leaving of his labours. During our last 
great struggle with France, 32 of our ships of the line went to the bot- 
tom in the space of twenty-two years, besides seven 50 gun ships, 86 fri- 
gates, and a multitude of smaller vessels. The navies of the European 
powers, France, Holland, Spain, and Denmark, were almost annihilated 
during the same period, so that the aggregate of their losses must have 
many times exceeded that of Great Britain. In every one of these ships 
were batteries of cannon constructed of iron or brass, whereof a great num- 
ber have the dates and places of their manufacture inscribed upon them 
in letters cast in metal. In each there were coins of copper, silver, and 
often many of gold, capable of service, as valuable historical monuments ; 
in each were an infinite variety of instruments of the arts of war and 
peace, many formed of materials, such as glass and earthenware, capa- 
ble of lasting for indefinite ages, when once removed from the mechani- 
cal action of the waves, and buried under a mass of matter which may 
exclude the corroding action of sea-water. But the reader must not 
imagine that the fury of war is more conducive than the peaceful hum of 
commercial enterprise to the accumulation of wreck of vessels in the bed 
of the sea. From an examination of Lloyd's lists, from the year 1793 
to the commencement of 1829, it has appeared that the number of 
British vessels alone lost during that period amounted, on an average, 
to no less than one and a half daily, a greater number than we should 
have anticipated, although we learn from Moreau's tables, that the num- 
ber of merchant vessels employed at one time in the navigation of Eng- 
land and Scotland amounted to about 20,000, having, one with another, 
a mean burden of 120 tons. Out of 551 ships of the royal navy lost to 
the country during the period above mentioned, only 160 were taken or 
destroyed by the enemy, the rest having either stranded or foundered, 
or having been burnt by accident ; a striking proof that the dangers of 
our naval warfare, however great, may be far exceeded by the storm, 
the hurricane, the shoal, and all the other perils of the deep. — Lt/eU's 
Geology. 



EPITAPH, BY BURNS. 
Whoe'er tliou art, reader, know, 

That Death has murder'd Johnnie ; 
And here his hoihj lies in' low, 

For sold he ne'er had ony 



EPITAPH ON SIR JOHN GUISE. 
Here lies the body of Sir John Guise j 
Nobody laughs and nobody cries ; 
Where his soul is and how it fares. 
Nobody knows and nobody cares. 



THE BLISS OF MATRIMONY. 457 



THE BLISS OF MATRIMONY. 

The eliarming society, the tender friendship it affords ! Without a 
friend, it is not for man to be happy. Let the old Madeira sparkle in 
his goblets, and princely dainties smoke upon his table, yet if he have to 
sit down with him no friend of the love-beaming eye, alas ! the banquet 
is insipid, and the cottager's dinner of herbs where love is, is to be envied. 

Let the pelf-scraping bachelor drive on alone towards heaven in his 
solitary sulky; Lord help the poor man, and send him good speed ! But 
that's not my way of travelling. No ! give me a sociable, dear, good 
angel by my side, the thrilling touch of whose sweetly folding arm may 
flush my spirits into rapture, and inspire a devotion suited to the place 3 
that best devotion, gratitude and love ! 

Yes, the sweetest drop in the cup of life is a friend ; but where on 
earth is the friend that deserves to be compared with an affectionate 
wife! that generous creature, who, for your sake, has left father and 
mother — looks to you alone for happiness, wishes in your society to 
spend her cheerful days — in your beloved arms to draw her latest breath ! 
The marriage of two such fond hearts, in one united, forms a state of 
friendship of all others the most perfect and delightful. 'Tis marriage 
of souls, of persons, of wishes, and of interests. 

Are you poor ? Like another self she toils and saves the better of your 
fortune. Are you sick ? She is the teuderest of all nurses ; she never 
leaves your bedside ; she sustains your fainting head, and strains your 
feverish cheeks to her dear and anxious bosom. How luxurious is sick- 
ness with such a companion ! 

Are you prosperous ? It multiplies your blessings ten thousand fold, 
to share them with one so beloved. Are you in her company ? Her 
very presence has the effect of the sweetest conversation, and her looks, 
though silent, convey a something to the heart, of which none but happy 
husbands have any idea,. Are you going abroad ? She accompanies you 
to the door — the tender embrace — the fond, lengthened kiss — the last, 
soul-melting look — precious evidences of love ! — these go along with you 
— they steal across your delighted memory, soothing your journey, while 
dear, conjugal love gives a transport to every glance at home and 
sweetens every nimble step of your glad return. There, soon as your 
beloved form is seen, she flies to meet you. Her voice is music — the 
pressure of her arms is rapture, while her eyes, heaven's sweetest mes- 
sengers of love ! declare the tumultuous joy that heaves her generous 
bosom. Arm in arm she hurries you into the smiling habitation, where 
the fire blazing, and the vestment warm, the neat apartment and delicious 
repast, prepared by her eager love, fill your bosom with a joy too big 
for utterance. 

Compared with a life like this, merciful God ! how disconsolate is the 

condition of the old bachelor ! How barren of all joy ! Solitary and 

comfortless at home, he strolls abroad into company. Meeting with no 

tenderness nor affection to sweeten company, he soon tires, and with a 

2 



458 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

sigli gets up to go home again. Poor man ! his eyes are upon ihe 
ground, and his steps are slow ; for, alas ! home has no attractions. He 
sees nothing there but gloomy walls and lonesome chambers. Alone 
he swallows his silent supper — he crawls to his bed, and, trembling, coils 
himself up in cold sheets, sadly remembering, with to-morrow's joyless 
sun the same dull round begins again. 



SPRINa. 

To the lovers of nature every season has its charms. The summer is 
the high noon of the year ; the autumn its sober decline; the winter its 
night of gloom, while the spring is the fresh morning, the day-dawn of 
the annual circle. 

We hazard no truth in saying, that each season has its peculiar associa- 
tions of thought — its alliances of matter to mind. Thus, although man 
and his mind may be the same, unchanged by the revolutions of time, 
the phases of his soul may be as various in the eye of the philosopher 
as those of the moon to the spectator who contemplates her disk under 
the changes of relative position. The mind that is oppressed with 
unaccountable gloom and forebodings in the sober time of autumn, may 
be light as the wings of the gossamer in the vernal season. Soaring 
then through the soft clouds and alternate smiles and tears of an April 
day, it may feel a joy as i^naccountable as its former depression. 

But, without reference to mental associations, the physical or natural 
renovations of the spring season are subjects of wonder and astonishment. 
Like some huge animal, torpid under the blasts and snows of winter, the 
earth seems to undergo the process of resuscitation as well as revivifica- 
tion. To carry the similitude still further, the perspiration, long sus- 
pended, now breaks out through millions of opening pores. Warm 
vapours and tepid exhalations creep over the beating and throbbing 
bosom of the soil. The internal channels of the subterranean oceans, 
like the great arteries of the human body, roll their flooding waters with 
a roar that mingles undistinguishably with the general voice of nature, 
and makes up that vast discourse which fills the listening ear of solitude. 
The newly-released rivers and murmuring brooks flow like the venous 
system of the human frame, leaping and playful in the fresh exuberance 
of life. The soft blue skies, the white fleecy clouds, the genial suns, 
and the love-beaming stars at night — all speak in answering language ; 
above and below and around alike are teeming with beauty and images 
of pleasure. 

The spring is an emblem of a better world. The general restoration 
of grass, and herb, and foliage, and flowers, is typical of the springtime 
that shall breathe fertility and life into the pale regions of the dead. 
Now our beloved — although memory cherishes departed friends — are too 
deeply asleep to hear the voice of the vernal birds carolling on the green 
bough. The sweet-breathed winds cannot fan those heads that are pil- 
lowed soundly. upon the grave. The beautiful and the pious, the learned 
and the brave, are chilled by the winter of death that has not broken up 



THE BROKEN HEART. 459 

for sis thousand years. When shall their springtime of immortality 
come ? When shall the frozen veins of death flow with the crimson cur- 
rents, and when shall the century -frosted heart palpitate with returning 
vitality ? 

Aside from the grandeur and beauty of the vernal months, their com- 
forting and grateful influences on natural organization and on the state 
of the poor are worthy of attention and merit our gratitude. The winter 
is an enemy to poverty ; spring comes as a friend. The blood no longer 
curdles under the bitter blast. If poverty and want be in the hut or the 
cottage, the plenty and rejoicing of nature are all without. 

Standing at the calm evening hour, or in the morning's lovely prime, 
on some grass-carpeted eminence, the man of no possessions, save the 
priceless treasures of an humble, and repentant, and admiring heart, may 
look abroad on all the fragrance and richness of the scenery around him, 
and exclaim with Groldsmith — 

Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine ! 



THE BROKEN HEART 

There was a large and gay party assembled one evening, in the me- 
morable month of June, 1815, at a house in the remote western suburbs 
of London. Throngs of handsome and well-dressed women — a large reti- 
nue of the leading men about town — the dazzling light of chandeliers, 
blazing like three suns overhead— the charms of music and dancing — 
together with that tone of excitement then pervading society at large, 
owing to successful continental campaigns, which maddened England 
into almost daily annunciations of victory — all these circumstances, I say, 
combined to supply spirit to every party. In fact, England was almost 

turned upside down with universal feting ! Mrs. , the lady whose 

party I have just been mentioning, was in ecstasy at the eclat with which, 
the whole was going ofi", and charmed with the buoyant animation with 
which all seemed inclined to contribute their quota to the evening's 
amusement. A young lady of some personal attractions, most amiable 
manners, and great accomplishments, particularly musical, had been 
repeatedly solicited to sit down to the piano, for the purpose of favour- 
ing the company with the favourite Scottish air, '' The Banks of Allan 
Wafer." For a long time, however, she steadfastly resisted their impor- 
tunities on the plea of low spirits. There was evidently an air of deep 
pensiveness, if not melancholy, about her, which ought to have corrobo- 
rated the truth of the plea she urged. She did not seem to gather 
excitement with the rest, and rather endured than shared the gayeties 
of the evening. Of course, the young folks around her of her own sex 
whispered their suspicions that she was in love ; and in point of fact, it 

was well known by several present that Miss was engaged to a 

young ofiicer who had earned considerable distinction in the peninsular 
campaign, and to whom she was to be united on his return from the con- 
tinent. It need not, therefore, be wondered at, that a thought of the 



460 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

various casualties to which a soldier's life is exposed — especially a bold 
and brave young soldier, such as her intended had proved himself — and 
the possibility, if not probability, that he might, alas ! never 

Return to claim his blushing bride, 

— but be left behind among the glorious throng of the fallen, sufficed to 
overcast her mind with gloomy anxieties and apprehensions. It was, 
indeed, owing solely to the affectionate importunities of her relatives that 
she was prevailed on to be seen in society at all. Had her own inclina- 
tions been consulted, she would have sought solitude, where she might, 
with weeping and trembling, commend her hopes to the hands of Him 
"who seeth in secret,'^ and "whose are the issues" of battle. As, how- 
ever. Miss 's rich contralto voice and skilful powers of accompani- 
ment were much talked of, the company would listen to no excuses or 
apologies; so the poor girl was absolutely baited into sitting down to the 
piano, when she ran over a few melancholy chords with an air of reluc- 
tance and displacency. Her sympathies were soon excited by the fine 
tones — the tumultuous melody of the keys she touched ; and she struck 
into the soft and soothing symphony of " The Banks of Allan Water." 
The breathless silence of the bystanders (for nearly all the company 
was thronged around) was at length broken by her voice, stealing, "like 
faint blue gushing streams," on the delighted ears of her auditors, as she 
commenced singing that exquisite little ballad with the most touching 
pathos and simplicity. She had just commenced the verse, 

For his bride a soldier sought her, 
And a winning tongue had he ! 

when, to the surprise of everybody around her, she suddenly ceased 
playing and singing, without removing her hands from the instrument, 
and gazed steadfastly forwai'd with a vacant air, while the colour faded 
from her cheeks, and left them pale as the lily. She continued thus for 
some moments, to the alarm and astonishment of the company — motion- 
less, and apparently unconscious of any one's presence. Her elder sister, 
much agitated, stepped towards her, placed her hand on her shoulder, 
endeavoured gently to rouse her, and said hurriedly, " Anne, Anne ! 
what now is the matter !" Miss made no answer; but a few mo- 
ments after, without moving her eyes, suddenly burst into a piercing- 
shriek ! Consternation seized all present. 

"Sister — sister! — dear Anne, are you ill?" again inquired her trem- 
bling sister, endeavouring to rouse her, but in vain. Miss did not 

seem either to see or hear her. Her eyes still gazed fixedly forward, till 
they seemed gradually to expand, as it were, with an expression of glassy 
horror. All present seemed utterly confounded and afraid to interfere 
with her. Whispers were heard, " She's ill — in a fit — run for some water ! 
Good God, how strange ! — what a piercing shriek !" &c. &c. At length 

Miss 's lips moved. She began to mutter inaudibly; but, by-and-by 

those immediately near her could distinguish the words, " There ! — there 
they are with their lanterns ! — Oh ! they are looking out for the de-a—ad! 
They turn over the heaps. — Ah ! — now — no ! — that little hill of slain — 
see, see ! they are turning them over one by one. — There !— there 



THE BROKEN HEART. 461 

HE IS ! — Oh, horror ! horror ! horror ! horror ! — right through the 
HEART !" and with a long shuddering groan she fell senseless into the 
arms of her horror-struck sister. Of course, all were in confusion and 
dismay ; not a face present but was blanched with agitation and affright 
on hearing the extraordinary words she uttered. With true delicacy and 
propriety of feeling, all those whose carriages had happened to have 
already arrived instantly took their departure, to prevent their presence 
embarrassing or interfering with the family, who were already sufficiently 
bewildered. The room was soon thinned of all except those who were 
immediately engaged in rendering their services to the young lady, and 
the servant was instantly despatched with a horse for me. On my arri- 
val, I found her in bed still at the house where the party was given, 
which was that of the young lady's sister-in-law. She had fallen into a 
succession of swoons ever since she had been carried up from the drawing- 
room, and was perfectly senseless when I entered the bedchamber where 
she lay. She had not spoken a syllable since uttering the singular words 
just related, and her whole frame was cold and rigid ; in fact, she seemed 
to have received some strange shock which had altogether paralyzed her. 
By the use, however, of strong stimulants, we succeeded in at length 
restoring her to something like consciousness ; but I think it would have 
been better for her, judging from the event, never to have woke again 
from forgetfulness. She opened her eyes under the influence of the 
searching stimulants we applied, and stared vacantly for an instant on 
those standing round her bedside. Her countenance, of an ashy hue, 
was damp with clammy perspiration, and she lay perfectly motionless, 
except when her frame undulated with long, deep-drawn sighs. 

'•'Oh, wretched, wretched, wretched girl!" she murmured at length, 
" why have I lived till now ? Why did you not suffer me to expire ? He 
called me to join him — I was going — and you will not let me — but I 
must go — yes, yes I" 

" Anne, dearest ! why do you talk so ? Charles is not gone. He will 
return soon ; he will, indeed," sobbed her sister. 

" Oh, never, never ! You could not see what I saw, .Jane," she shud- 
dered ; " oh, it was frightful ! How they tumbled about the heaps of 
the dead ! How they stripped ! — oh, horror ! horror I" 

"My dear Miss , you are dreaming — raving — indeed you are," 

said I, holding her hand in mine ; " come, come, you must not give way 
to such gloomy, such nervous fancies ; you must not, indeed. You are 
frightening your friends to no purpose." 

" What do you mean ?" she replied, looking me suddenly full in the 
face ; '• I tell you it is true ! Ah, me ! Charles is dead — I know it — I 
saw him! — Shot right through (he heart! They were stripping him, 
when — " and heaving three or four short, convulsive sobs, she again 

swooned. Mrs. , the lady of the house, (sister-in-law of Miss , 

as I think I have mentioned,) could endure the distressing scene no 
longer, and was carried out of the room fainting in the arms of her 

husband. With great difficulty we succeeded in restoring Miss 

once more to consciousness ; but the frequency and duration of her 
relapses began seriously to alarm me. The spirit, being brought so often 
2o2 



462 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

to the brink, might at last suddenly flit off into eternity without any 
one's being aware of it. I, of course, did all that my professional 
knowledge and experience suggested ; and, after ex^pressing my readi- 
ness to remain all night in the house in the event of any sudden altera- 
tion in Miss for the worse, I took my departure, promising to call 

very early in the morning. Before leaving, Mr. had acquainted me 

with all the particulars above related ; and as I rode home, I could not 
help feeling the liveliest curiosity, mingled with the most intense sym- 
pathy for the unfortunate sufferer, to see whether the corroborating events 
would stamp the present as one of those extraordinary occurrences which 
occasionally '^ come o'er us like a summer cloud," astonishing and per- 
plexing every one. 

The next morning, about nine o'clock, I was again at Miss 's bed- 
side. She was nearly in the same state as that in which I had left her the 
preceding evening, only feebler, and almost continually stupified. She 
seemed, as it were, stunned with some severe but invisible stroke. She said 
scarcely any thing, but often uttered a low, moaning, indistinct sound, 
and whispered at intervals, " yes — shortly, Charles, shortly — to-morrow." 
There was no rousing her by conversation; she noticed no one, and would 
answer no questions. I suggested the propriety of calling in additional 
medical assistance ; and in the evening met two eminent brother physi- 
cians in consultation at her bedside. We came to the conclusion that 
she was sinking rapidly, and that, unless some miracle intervened to 
restore her energies, she would continue with us but a very little longer. 
After my brother physicians had left, I returned to the sick chamber, 

and sat by Miss 's bedside for more than an hour. My feelings were 

much agitated at witnessing her singular and affecting situation. There 
was such a sweet and sorrowful expression about her pallid features, 
deepening occasionally into such hopelessness of heart-broken anguish, 
as no one could contemplate without deep emotion. There was besides 
something mysterious and awing — something of what in Scotland is 
called second-sight — in the circumstances which had occasioned her illness. 

" Gone — gone !" she murmured, with closed eyes, while I was sitting 
and gazing in silence on her ; " gone — and in glory ! Ah ! I shall see 
the young conqueror — I shall ! How he will love me ! Ah ! I recol- 
lect," she continued, after a long interval, " it was the ' Banks of Allan 
Water' those cruel people made me sing — and my heart breaking the 
while ! What was the verse I was singing when I saw — " she shud- 
dered—" Oh ! this— 

For his bride a soldier sought her — 

And a winning tongue had he — 
On the banks of Allan water 

None so gay as she ! 
But the summer grief had brought her, 

And the soldier — false was he — 

Oh, no, no, never, Charles ! my poor, murdered Charles — never !" she 
groaned, and spoke no more that night. She continued utterly deaf to 
all that was said in the way of sympathy or remonstrance ; and if her 
lips moved at all, it was only to utter faintly some such words as " Oh, let 



THE BROKEN HEART. 463 

me — let me leave in peace !" During the next two days slie continued 
drooping rapidly. The only circumstance about her demeanour particu- 
larly noticed was, that she once moved her hands for a moment over the 
counterpane, as though she were playing the piano ; a sudden flush over- 
spread her features ; her eyes stared, as though she were startled by the 
appearance of some phantom or other, and she gasped, " There — there \" 
after which she relapsed into her former state of stupor. 

How will it be credited, that on the fourth morning of Miss 's 

illness, a letter was received from Paris by her family, with a black seal, 

and franked by the noble colonel of the regiment in which Charles 

had served, communicating the melancholy intelligence that the young 
captain had fallen towards the close of the battle of Waterloo ; for while 
in the act of charging at the head of his corps, a French cavalry officer 
shot him with his pistol rujht ihrough the heart! The whole family, 
with all their acquaintance, were unutterably shocked at the news — 
almost petrified with amazement at the strange corroboration of Miss 

's prediction. How to communicate it to the poor sufferer was now 

a serious question, or whether to communicate it at all at present. The 
family, at last, considering that it would be unjustifiable in them any- 
longer to withhold the intelligence, intrusted the painful duty to me. I 
therefore repaired to her bedside alone, in the evening of the day ou 
which the letter had been received : that evening was the last of her 
life ! I sat down in my usual place beside her, and her pulse, counte- 
nance, breathing, cold extremities, together with the fact that she had 
taken no nourishment whatever since she had been laid on her bed, con- 
vinced me that the poor girl's sufferings were soon to terminate. I was 
at a loss for a length of time how to break the oppressive silence. Ob- 
serving, however, her fading eyes fixed on me, I determined, as it were, 
accidentally, to attract them to the fatal letter which I then held in my 
hand. After a while she observed it; her eye suddenly settled on the am- 
ple coroneted seal, and the sight operated something like an electric shock. 
She seemed struggling to speak, but in vain. I now wished to heaven 
I had never agreed to undertake the duty which had been imposed upon 
me. I opened the letter, and looking steadfastly at her, said, in as sooth- 
ing tones as my agitation could command, '^ My dear girl, now don't be 
alarmed, or I shall not tell you what I am going to tell you." She 
trembled, and her sensibilities seemed suddenly restored ; for her eye 
assumed an expression of alarmed intelligence, and her lips moved about 
like those of a person who feels them parched with agitation, and endea- 
vours to moisten them. "This letter has been received to-day from 

Paris/' I continued. " It is from Colonel Lord , and brings word 

that — that — that—" I felt suddenly choked, and could not bring out 
the words. 

" That my Charles is dead ! I know it. Did I not tell you so ?" said 

Miss , interrupting me, with as clear and distinct a tone of voice as 

she ever had in her life. I felt confounded. Had the unexpected ope- 
rations of the news I brought been able to dissolve the spell which had 
withered her mental energies, and afford promise of her restoration to 
health ? 



464 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Has the reader ever watched a candle, which is flickering and expiring 
in its socket, suddenly shoot up into an instantaneous brilliance, and 
then be utterly extinguished ? I soon saw it was thus with poor Miss 

. All the expiring energies of her soul were suddenly collected to 

receive this corroboration of her vision, (if such it may be called,) and 
then she would, 

Like a lily drooping, 
Bow her head, and die. 

To return. She begged me, in a faltering voice, to read her all the 
letter. She listened with closed eyes, and made no remark when I 
bad concluded. After a long pause, I exclaimed, " Grod be praised, my 

dear Miss j that you have been able to receive this dreadful news so 

firmly V 

" Doctor, tell me, have you no medicine that could make me weep ? 
Oh, give it me ; it would relieve me, for I feel a mountain on my breast — 
it is pressing me," replied she, feebly, uttering the words at long inter- 
vals. Pressing her hand in mine, I begged her to be calm, and the 
oppression would soon disappear. 

" Oh — oh — oh, that I could weep, doctor !" She whispered something 
else, but inaudibly. I put my ear close to her mouth, and distinguished 
something like the words, " I am — I am — call her — hush," accompa- 
nied with a faint, fluttering, gurgling sound. Alas ! I too well under- 
stood it ! With much trepidation I ordered the nurse to summon the 
family into the room instantly. Her sister Jane was the first that en- 
tered, her eyes swollen with weeping, and seemingly half-suflbcated with 
the efi"ort to conceal her emotions. 

" Oh, my darling, precious, precious sister Anne !" she sobbed, and 
knelt down at the bedside, flinging her arras round her sistei-'s neck, 
kissing the gentle sufierer's cheeks and mouth. 

" Anne ! — love ! — darling ! — Don't you know me ?" she groaned, kiss- 
ing her forehead repeatedly. Could I help weeping ? All who had en- 
tered were standing around the bed, sobbing, and in tears. I kept my 
fingers at the wrist of the dying sufi"erer, but could not feel whether or 
not the pulse beat ; which, however, I attributed to my own agitation. 

" Speak — speak — my darling Anne ! Speak to me — I am your poor 
sister Jane !" sobbed the agonized girl, continuing fondly kissing her 
sister's cold lips and forehead. She suddenly started, exclaiming, '* 
God, she's dead !" and sank instantly senseless on the floor. Alas ! 
alas ! it was too true ; my sweet and broken-hearted patient was no 
more ! — From the Diary of a London Physician. 



LIFE. 

Oh, what wore life's dull, transient hour. 

Without its sunshine and its shower^ 

Its day of gloom, and doubt's dark dream — 

And hope's succeeding bris^'htenius beam? 



MAXIMS FOR MARRIED LADIES. 465 



MAXIMS FOK MARRIED LADIES. 

The following maxims, if pursued, will not only make men love a 
married life, but cause them to be good husbands : — The first is to be 
good yourself; to avoid all thoughts of managing your husband. Never 
try to deceive or impose on his understanding, nor give him uneasiness ; 
but treat him with affection, sincerity, and respect. Remember that 
husbands, at best, are only men, subject, like yourselves, to error and 
frailty. Be not too sanguine, then, before marriage, or promise your- 
selves happiness without alloy. Should you discover any thing in his 
humour or behaviour not altogether what you expected or wish, pass it 
over, smooth your own temper, and try to mend his, by attention, cheer- 
fulness, and good-nature. Never reproach him with misfortunes, which 
are the accidents and infirmities of life — a burden which each has en- 
gaged to assist the other in supporting, and to which both parties are 
equally exposed; but, instead of murmurings and reflections, divide the 
sorrows between you ; make the best of it, and it will be easier to both. 
It is the innate office of the softer sex to soothe the troubles of the other. 
Resolve every morning to be cheerful all day, and should any thing occur 
to break your resolution, suffer it not to put you out of temper with 
your husband. Dispute not with him, be the occasion what it may; 
but much sooner deny yourself the trifle of having your own will, or 
gaining the better of an argument, than risk a quarrel, or create a heart- 
burning, which it is impossible to see the end of. Implicit submission 
in a man to his wife, is ever disgraceful to both; but implicit submission 
in the wife is what she promised at the altar, what the good will revere 
her for, and what is in fact an honour to her. 

Be assured, a woman's power, as well as her happiness, has no other 
foundation than her husband's esteem and love, which it is her interest, 
by all possible means, to preserve and increase. Study, therefore, his 
temper, and command your own. Enjoy with him satisfaction, share 
and soothe his cares, and with the utmost assiduity conceal his infirm- 
ities. 



Newspapeks. — -I never derive more benefit, or see more pleasure for 
the time, says Dr. Johnson, than reading a newspaper which has lately 
issued from the press. I do really believe that nothing adds so much to 
the glory of my country as newspapers. Liberty is stamped legibly upon 
its pages, and even the fold is marked with freedom. Do you want to 
know how your country thrives, I point you to the press ! There you 
shall find a piece, perhaps, under the head of legislative ! Are you fond 
of miscellany, look there ! What book can furnish such good accounts 
of murder, robbery, accidents, marriages, anecdotes, and many other such 
things. Such good as well as bad accounts from the Russians, Turks, 
Dutch, &c. Under all these considerations, who is there in this land of 
freedom, that will not attend to an object so worthy of his regard ? , 

30 



466 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



KEVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTE. 

In the year 1778, when the combined forces of France and America 
were contemplating an attack on Newport, Rhode Island, G-eneral Sulli- 
van arranged his army to march against the British forces. He disposed 
his troops into three divisions ; the first division was ordered to take the 
west road, the second to take the east road, and the third to march in the 
centre. The advanced guard, having arrived within three hundred yards 
of the British, commenced throwing up intrenchments. The British 
then fired a few scattering shot, which passed over the heads of the Ameri- 
cans without doing any injury. The American guards were placed about 
thirty rods in advance of the army, and within speaking distance of the 
guards of the British. In full view were five or six hundred horses 
feeding, which excited the enterprise of a young man by the name of 
Mason, about twenty years old. This young man, in open day, and in 
the presence of both armies, conceived the bold design of bringing one 
of these horses as a prize. In a low piece of ground between both sen- 
tinels, were a few scattering elders, by means of which he contrived to 
pass both lines undiscovered, and made direct for the pasture, where the 
horses with their saddles on were feeding, and the bridles slipped about 
their necks. Among these he selected the best horse he could find, 
which he mounted, and after leaping two or three fences, entered the 
road which led to the American army. As he approached the British 
guards he put spurs to his horse, and passed them before they had time 
to recover their surprise ; when he received the fire of both sentinels at 
the same time. But our hero had the good fortune to escape unhurt, 
and arrived safe in the American camp with his noble prize, when he 
halted, and in a dignified manner, drew from his holster both his pistols, 
and, extending his arms, discharged them both in triumph. 

But the alarm given by the sentinel called out both armies, and the 
panic extended even to the British fleet in the harbour. Alarm-guns 
were fired for many miles up and down the coast, and the whole country 
was filled with the utmost consternation. The British army paraded in 
front of the fort, expecting immediate attack. The troops immediately 
sprang for their horses, when, lo ! one poor red coat was seen wandering 
alone, destitute of a horse. The cause of alarm was soon discovered, 
and both armies retired. 

Our hero, after exhibiting his horse in proud triumph for about two 
hours, sold him to one of the officers for five hundred dollars, a reward 
worthy one of the most bold, daring, and successful enterprises of which 
history can boast. 

In the fourteenth century, John de Gaddesden, the great court physi- 
cian of that day, attempted to cure a child of Edward II. of smallpox by 
hanging scarlet drapery round the bed and before the window. The 
same worthy doctor knew no better way of curing epilepsy than that of 
taking his patient to church to hear mass. 



STANZAS. — OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 



467 



STANZAS 



TO HER WHO CAN BEST UNDERSTAND THEM. 

BY LORD BTRON. 

The following touchins verses were given to us by a French lady, who received them, if we remember 
rightly, from an acquaintance of their noble author in Paris. They have never to our knowledge appeared 
in any of Byron's published works; and the readers of the Casket M'iU be pleased to peruse any thing 
heretofore unread from the pen of that distinguished poet. — Casket, 1833. 



Be it so — we part for ever ! 

Let the past as nothing be ; 
Had I lightly loved thee, never 

Hadst, thou been thus dear to me. 

Had I loved and thus been slighted. 
That I better could have borne : — 

Love is quell'd, when unrequited, 
By the rising pulse of scorn. 

Pride may cool what passion heated. 
Time will tame the wayward will ; 

But the heart in friendship cheated 
Throbs with wo's most maddening thrill. 

Had I loved— I now might hate thee, 

In that hatred solace seek; 
Might exult to execrate thee. 

And in words my vengeance wreak. 

But there is a silent sorrow 

Which can find no vent in speech, 

Which disdains relief to borrow 
From the heights that song can reach. 

Like a clankless chain enthralling. 
Like the sleepless dreams that mock. 

Like the frigid ice-drop falling 
From the surf-surrounded rock : 

Such the cold, the sickening feeling 
Thou hast caused this heart to know: 

Stabb'd the deeper by concealing 
From the world its bitter wo ! 

Once it fondly, proudly deem'd thee 
All that fancy's self could paint ; 

Once it honour'd and esteem'd thee. 
As its idol and its saint ! 

More than woman thou wast to me ; 

Not as man I look'd on thee ; — 
Why like woman then undo me ? 

Why heap man's worst curse on me ? 



Wast thou but a friend, assuming 
Friendship's smile and woman's art. 

And, in borrow'd beauty blooming. 
Trifling with a trusting heart ? 

By that eye which once could glisten 

With opposing glance to me ; 
By that ear which once could listen 

To each tale I told to thee: 

By that lip, its smile bestowing 
Which could soften sorrow's gush; 

By that cheek, once brightly glowing 
With pure friendship's well-feign' d blush. 

By all those false charms united. 
Thou hast wrought thy wanton will; 

And without compunction blighted 
What thou wouldst not kindly kill! 

Yet I curse thee not in sadness; 

Still I feel how dear thou wert 
Oh ! I could not e'en in madness 

Doom thee to thy just desert ! 

Live ! and when my life is over, 
Should thine own be lengthen'd long. 

Thou mayst then too late discover, 
By thy feelings, all my wrong ! 

When thy beauties all are faded. 
When thy flatterers fawn no more : 

Ere the solemn shroud hath shaded 
Some regardless reptile's store : 

Ere that hour, false siren, hear me ! 

Thou mayst feel what I do now ; 
While my spirit, hovering near thee. 

Whispers friendship's broken vow. 

But 'tis useless to upbraid thee 
With thy past or present state : 

What thou wast, my fancy made thee ; 
What thou art, I know too late. 



OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 



Who would sever freedom's shrine ? 
Who would draw the invidious line ? 
Though by birth one spot be mine. 
Dear is all the rest : 

Dear to me the South's fair land. 
Dear the central mountain band, 
Dear New England's rocky strand, 
Dear the prairied West. 

By our altars, pure and free ; 
By our laws' deep-rooted tree ; 
By the past's dread memory; 
By our Washington ; 



By our common parent tongue : 
By o\xr hopes, bright, buoyant, young. 
By the tie of country strong, — 
We will still be one. 

Fathers ! have ye bled in vain ? 
Ages ! must ye droop again ? 
Maker ! shall wo rashly stain 
Blessings sent by thee ? 

jVo / — receive our solemn vow. 
While before thy shrine we bow. 
Ever to maintain as now, 
UinoN— Liberty ! 



468 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 



THE GREAT PLAGUE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

The memory of the G-reat Plague in London, has been rendered im- 
mortal by the prose of Daniel Defoe and the poetry of John Wilson. 
But the greater plague which overran almost the whole world, three cen- 
turies before, is almost forgotten. A slight sketch of its history, drawn 
from old chronicles, will show, by comparison^ what a small matter is 
magnified into a pestilence in the present day. 

This dreadful pestilence, like the cholera, made its first appearance in 
the East. It arose in China, Tartary, India, and Egypt, about the year 
1345. It is ascribed by the contemporary writers, Mezeray and Giovanni 
Villani, to a general corruption of the atmosphere, accompanied by the 
appearance of millions of small serpents and other venomous insects, 
and in other places quantities of huge vermin, with nunierous legs, and 
of a hideous aspect, which filled the air with putrid exhalations. Some 
zealous Christian writers of the time derived its origin from the arch- 
imposter Mohammed ; for they say that, at Mecca, in Arabia Felix, it 
rained snakes and blood from heaven for three days and nights together j 
that the temple of Mohammed was beaten down by a terrible tempest, 
and his sepulchre torn up and broken in pieces ; and that the sulphu- 
reous vapoui's, and the stench of the snakes and blood, so corrupted the 
middle region of the air, that the infectious matter spread itself over the 
world in all directions. Making every allowance for the ignorance and 
credulity of the age, it appears evident that some natural causes had con- 
tributed to corrupt the air, and load it with pestiferous vapours. And it 
is remarkable, that before the disease appeared in Europe, singular me- 
teorological phenomena, of a similar nature, took place. Thus it came 
into England in the end of the year 1348 ; and it had rained from the 
previous Christmas till midsummer almost without ceasing; "so that all 
the while," to use the words of an old writer, " it hardly ever held up so 
much as for one day and night together." Great inundations followed, 
and accumulations of stagnant water, by which the whole atmosphere 
was poisoned. In France, several strange meteoric appearances are de- 
scribed by writers of credit. Giovanni Villani says, that on the 20th of 
December, 1348, in the morning, after sunrise, there appeared at Avig- 
non, over the pope's palace, a pillar of fire, which tarried there for the 
space of an hour, producing general terror and amazement. 

During the same period there were many dreadful earthquakes, some 
of them in places where such phenomena have since been unheard of. 
At Rome, an earthquake threw down a great number of houses, steeples, 
and churches. At Naples there was an earthquake, accompanied with 
a tremendous hurricane, which destroyed a large portion of the city. 
On this occasion it is related, that while a friar was preaching to a 
crowded congregation, he and his auditory were swallowed up in an 
instant — all but one individual, who observed the trembling of the earth 
in time to save himself by flight. A great multitude of the inhabitants 
were buried in the ruins of their habitations; and the citizens durst not 



THE GREAT PLAGUE. 469 

venture into their houses, but remained terrified in the market-places or 
fields, till the earthquake (which continued by fits for eight days) had 
spent its fury. In Greece, particularly in the Morea and the island of 
Cyprus, whole villages were overwhelmed. Even in Germany, a country 
not liable to this calamity, there was an earthquake which extended over 
a great part of Austria and Styria, and destroyed many towns and villages 
in those districts: "And many other provinces/' says an old historian, 
" suffered such lasting characters of the fury of these strong convulsions 
of nature, that, lest the joint concurrence of so many authors of those 
days should not obtain sufficient credit, they might be very plainly read 
even by late posterity." These earthquakes were generally attended 
with storms of thunder and lightning, wind and hail. In the year 1348, 
according to Lampadius, it rained blood in Germany, and meteors and 
other coruscations appeared in the air. Mock suns were seen, and the 
heavens sometimes seemed on fire. 

In many of these accounts, we may presume that there is a good deal 
of exaggeration. But the testimonies are too numerous and respectable 
to leave any doubt that, before and during the pestilence, the elements 
were in a state of general convulsion which seems unparalleled in history. 

The plague extended its ravages from India to the more western parts 
of Asia, into Egypt, Abyssinia, and thence into the northern parts of 
Africa. It proceeded over Asia Minor, Greece, and the islands in the 
Archipelago ; almost depopulating the regions over which it stalked. It 
may be literally said to have decimated the world, even though we were 
to take this term as implying the destruction of nine, in place of one, 
out of ten. According to Mezeray, and other writers, where it was most 
favourable, it left one out of three, or one out of five; but where it 
raged most violently, it scarce left a fifteenth or twentieth person alive. 
Some countries, partly by the plague, and partly by earthquakes, were 
left quite desolate. Giovanni Villani says, that in a part of Mesopo- 
tamia only some women survived, who were driven by extremity and 
despair to devour one another. 

The pleague appears to have stayed five or sis months in one place, 
and then to have gone in search of fresh victims. Its symptoms are 
minutely described by many writers, and appear to have been the same 
in every country it visited. It generally appeared in the groin, or under 
the armpits, where swellings were produced, which broke into sores, 
attended with fever, spitting and vomiting of blood. The patient fre- 
quently died in half a day — generally within a day or two at the most. 
If he survived the third day, there was hope ; though even then many 
fell into a deep sleep, from which they never awoke. 

Before the pestilence invaded Christendom, it is recorded in a report 
made to the pope at Avignon, that it swept away twenty-three millions 
eight hundred thousand persons throughout the East in the course of a 
single year. While the Christians remained untouched, their supposed 
immunity, since their neighbours were suffering the extremity of the 
malady, operated so strongly on the minds of some of the heathen 
princes, that they resolved to propitiate Heaven by embracing Christi- 
anity. The King of Tarsis, accompanied by a great multitude of his 
2 P 



470 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

princes and nobles, actually set out on Ms journey to Avignon, to receive 
baptism from Pope Clement VI. But, hearing on his way that the 
Christians too had become victims to the destroyer, he returned home, 
with the loss of about two thousand men, whom the Christians most 
ungenerously attacked and cut off in the rear of his army. 

From Greece the plague passed into Italy. The Venetians, having 
lost 100,000 souls, fled from their city, and left it almost uninhabited. 
At Florence 60,000 persons died in one year. Among these was the 
historian, Griovanni Villani, whose writings we have already referred to. 
He was one of the most distinguished men of his age ; and his historical 
works are looked upon as correct and valuable. He was the annalist of 
this pestilence almost down to the day of his falling a victim to it. 
France next became exposed to its ravages. At Avignon the mortality 
was horrible. In the strong language of Stow, people died bleeding at 
the nose and mouth ; so that rivers ran with blood, and streams of putrid 
gore issued from the graves and sepulchres of the dead. When it first 
broke out there, no fewer than sixty-sis of the Carmelite friars died 
before anybody knew how, so that it was imagined they had murder- 
ed one another. Of the members of the English college at Avignon, 
not one was left alive ; and of the whole inhabitants of the city, not 
one in five. According to a statement, or bill of mortality, laid before 
the pope, there died in one day 1212, and in another 400 persons. 
The malady proceeded northward through France, till it reached Paris, 
where it cut off 50,000 people. About the same time it spread into 
Germany, where its ravages are estimated at the enormous amount of 
12,400,000 souls. At Lubeck alone, according to the concurring ac- 
counts of several writers, 90,000 persons were swept away in one year, 
of whom 1500 are reported to have died in the space of four hours. 

At last this fearful scourge began to be felt in England. About the 
beginning of August, 1348, it appeared in the seaport towns on the 
coast of Dorset, Devon, and Somersetshire, whence it proceeded to 
Bristol. The people of Gloucestershire immediately interdicted all in- 
tercourse with Bristol, but in vain. The disease ran, or rather flew over 
Gloucestershire. Thence it spread to Oxford; and about the first of 
November reached London. Finally, it spread itself all over England, 
scattering everywhere such destruction, that, out of the whole popula- 
tion, hardly one person in ten was left alive. 

Incredible as this statement may appear, it seems borne out by the 
details of contemporary annalists. In the churchyard of Yarmouth 
7052 persons, who died of the plague, were buried in one year. In the 
city of Norwich, 57,374 persons died in six months, between the 1st of 
January and the 1st of July. In the city of York the mortality was 
equal. We find no general statement of the total amount of the mortal- 
ity in London ; but there are details sufficient to show that it must have 
been horrible beyond imagination. The dead were thrown in pits, forty, 
fifty, or sixty, into one; and large fields were employed as burial-places, 
the churchyards being insufficient for the purpose. No attempt was 
made to perform this last office with the usual care and decency. Deep 
and broad ditches were made, in which the dead bodies were laid in 



THE GKEAT PLAGUE. 47! 

rows, and covered with earth, and surmounted with another layer of 
bodies, which also was covered. Sir Walter Manny (whose name is so 
well known from his connection with the affecting incident of the sur- 
render of Calais to Edward III.) benevolently purchased and appropriated 
a burial-ground, near Smithfield, in which single place more than fifty 
thousand people were buried. 

This pestilence gave occasion to some diplomatic intercourse between 
England and France, which is strikingly characteristic of the manners of 
the age. While the mortality was raging in those countries, Pope 
Clement VI. never ceased importuning the monarchs of both to put an 
end to their mutual hostility, and, by doing so, to avoid the continuance 
of a calamity sent by Heaven to punish the sins of mankind. Edward 
and Philip were induced by these pious exhortations to appoint commis- 
sioners, who met between Calais and St. Omers to negotiate a treaty. 
The French insisted on the restoration of Calais, or the razing of its for- 
tifications ; a proposition which the English would not listen to. At 
last, however, a truce was agreed upon for sis months, till September 
following, in order to allow time to negotiate for a peace ; and it was 
further agreed, that if, at the end of the truce, a final treaty was not con- 
cluded, the crown of France was to be brought to a convenient place 
within that realm, and the right to it decided by a pitched battle, with- 
out further appeal. The death of the French king, however, which hap- 
pened in August, 1350, before the expiration of the truce, put an end to 
this smooth and amicable plan of accommodation. 

This terrible visitation was everywhere attended by a total dissolu- 
tion of the bonds of society. An excellent old writer gives the following 
eloquent description of the state of England : — " We are told the influ- 
ence of this disease was so contagious, that it not only infected by a 
touch or breathing, but transfused its malignity into the very beams 
of light, and darted death from the eyesj and the very seats and garments 
of such proved fatal. Wherefore parents forsook their children, and 
wives their husbands ; nor would physicians here make their visits, for 
neither were they able to do good to others, and they were almost cer- 
tain thereby to destroy themselves. Even the priests also, for the same 
horrid consideration, forebore either to administer the sacraments or 
absolve the dying penitent. But yet neither priests, nor physicians, nor 
any other who sought thus to escape, did find their caution of any advan- 
tage ; for death not only raged without doors as well as in chambers, but, 
as if it took indignation that any mortal should think to fly from it, 
these kind of people died both more speedily and proportionably in 
greater numbers. Then was there death without sorrow, affinity with- 
out friendship, wilful penance and dearth without scarcity, and flying 
without refuge or succour. For many fled from place to place because of 
the pestilence ; some into deserts and places not inhabited, either in hope 
or despair. But quick-sighted destruction found them out, and nimble- 
footed misery was ever ready to attend them. Others, having hired 
boats or other vessels, into which they laid up provisions, thought, or at 
least hoped, so to elude the power of the infection, but the destroying 
angel, like that in the Revelations, had one foot upon the waters as well 



472 riELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

as on the land ; for, alas ! the very air they breathed being tainted, they 
drew in death together with life itself. The horror of these things made 
others to lock themselves up in their houses, gardens, and sweet retired 
places ; but the evil they intended to exclude pursued them through all 
their defences ; and they had this only difference, to die without the com- 
pany of any that might serve or pity them. No physician could tell 
the cause, or prescribe a cure ; and even what was saving to one was no 
less than fatal to another. No astrologer could divine how or when it 
would cease ; the only way left was to be prepared to receive it, and the 
most comfortable resolution to expect it without fear." 

The pestilence extended into Wales, where it raged violently ; and 
soon afterwards passing into Ireland, it made great havoc among the 
English settled in that island. But it was remarked that the native 
Irish were little affected, particularly those that dwelt in hilly districts. 

As to the Scots, they were said to have brought the malady upon 
themselves. Taking advantage of the defenceless state of England, they 
made a hostile irruption, with a large force, into the country. But they 
had not proceeded far, when the calamity which they courted, and so 
well deserved from their ungenerous conduct, overtook them. They 
perished in thousands; and, in attempting to return home, they were 
overtaken, before they could reach the border, by a strong body of the 
English, who routed them with great slaughter. The remnant carried 
the disease into Scotland, where its ravages were soon as destructive as 
in the southern parts of the island. " Scotland," says the writer whom 
we have already quoted, " partook of the universal contagion in as high 
a degree and in the same manner as other countries had done before ; 
only in this there was a difference, that whereas other nations sat still 
and waited for it, the Scots did seem ambitious to fetch it among them- 
selves I" However much Scotland may have had to complain of the 
oppression and tyranny of England under the Edwards, it was ungene- 
rous and unworthy of a brave people to attempt to retaliate on a nation 
laid prostrate by the hand of Heaven. At the same time, there is no 
reason to doubt that the general cause, whatever it was, of the pestilence, 
would at any rate have soon extended to Scotland, as well as Wales and 
Ireland. 

Early in the year 1349, the plague began to abate in England ; and 
by the month of August, it had entirely disappeared. Its consequences, 
however, continued for some time to be severely felt. During the preva- 
lence of the disease, the cattle, for want of men to tend them, were 
allowed to wander about the fields at random, and perished in such num- 
bers as to occasion a great scarcity. Though the fields, too, were 
covered with a plentiful crop of corn, much of it was lost for want of 
hands to reap and gather it in. 

The last dregs of this calamity were drained by that unfortunate race, 
the Jews. A belief spread over several countries that they had produced 
the pestilence by poisoning the wells and fountains, and, in many places, 
they were massacred in thousands by the infuriated populace. In seve- 
ral parts of Grermany, where this persecution chiefly raged, the Jews 
were literal!}^ exterminated. Twelve thousand of them were murdered 



THE GREAT PLAGUE. 473 

in the single city of Mentz ; and multitudes of them, in the extremity 
of their despair, shut themselves up in their houses, and consumed them- 
selves and their families and property with fire. The extent of such 
atrocities, in a barbarous age, may well be imagined, when we remem- 
ber the outrages which were produced by the cholera panic, only a 
few years ago, in some parts of the continent. 

Though the pestilence ceased in England in 1349, yet the destroying 
angel continued his progress through other regions for several years 
longer ; marks of his presence remaining on record down to the year 
1362. The world has suffered no similar visitation since; nor does its 
older history give any account of a calamity of the same kind, equally 
extensive and destructive. Even the pestilence, so eloquently described 
by Gibbon, which ravaged a great part of the Roman empire, seems to 
have been inferior in magnitude ; and the famous plague of Athens was 
confined within a still narrower compass. In almost every other memo- 
rable instance of the plague, it has been limited to a particular district, 
or even a particular city. 

Our present object has been merely to collect some circumstances of 
the history of this most remarkable event, and not to enter into the 
question of the theory of pestilence. We may, however, observe, that 
not only was the great plague, of which we have been speaking, preceded 
and accompanied by disorders of the elements, tending to produce a 
general corruption of the atmosphere, but the very same phenomena are 
recorded in the other cases where the plague extended itself over various 
regions. In those eastern countries, too, where the plague is found to 
prevail almost constantly, it always occurs at times and places where the 
atmosphere is corrupted, either by physical causes or by the shockingly 
filthy habits of the inhabitants, or by both together. That a corrupted 
state of the atmosphere, therefore, is a cause of the plague, cannot be 
doubted } and it is a question, whether to this certain cause it is neces- 
sary to join the additional cause oi contagion. As the ascertained cause 
suffices to account for every fact connected with the disease, we confess 
we do not see the necessity for having recourse to two separate causes 
for the same eflfeet. And it is a strong circumstance, that in those coun- 
tries where the disease is most familiarly known, little fear is entertained 
of contagion. '' The more intelligent among the Turks," says a recent 
writer on this subject, " seem to be aware that the plague is not conta- 
gious ; and we are assured that they do not destroy the bedding or clothes 
of those who die of the distemper, but often immediately put them on 
and wear them, without any ill effects, or the smallest apprehension from 
contagion." 



The true value attaching to knowledge is— that it enlarges the dominion 
of truth and happiness : beings without knowledge of some kind are as 
men walking in the dark. How many of the follies of mankind appear 
to us as iudfcrous and grotesque, only because knowledge has shed round 
about us a light altogether unknown to the actors in the farce ! 
2p2 



474 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



DUELLING. 



Life is the gift of God, and it never was bestowed to be sported witb. 
To each, the Sovereign of the universe has marked out a sphere to move 
in, and assigned a part to act. This part respects ourselves not only, 
but others also. Each lives for the benefit of all. 

As in the system of nature the sun shines, not to display its own 
brightness and answer its own convenience, but to warm, enlighten, and 
bless the world; so in the system of animated beings, there is a depend- 
ence, a correspondence, and a relation, through an infinitely extended, 
dying, and reviving universe — "■ in which no man liveth to himself, and 
no man dieth to himself." Friend is related to friend ; the father to his 
family ; the individual to community. To every member of which, hav- 
ing fixed his station and assigned his duty, the God of nature says, " Keep 
this trust — defend this post." For whom ? For thy friends ; thy 
family ; thy country. And having received such a charge, and for such 
a purpose, to desert it is rashness and temerity. 

Since the opinions of men are as they are, do you ask how you shall 
avoid the imputation of cowardice, if you do not fight when you are 
injured ? Ask your family how you will avoid the imputation of cruelty; 
ask your conscience how you will avoid the imputation of guilt ; 
ask God how you will avoid his malediction, if you do. These are pre- 
vious questions. Let these first be answered, and it will be easy to reply 
to any which may follow them. If you only accept a challenge, when 
you believe in your conscience that duelling is wrong, you act the cow- 
ard. The dastardly fear of the world governs you. Awed by its 
menaces, you conceal your sentiments, appear in disguise, and act in 
guilty conformity to principles not your own, and that too in the most 
solemn moment; and when engaged in an act which exposes you to 
death. 

But if it be rashness to accept, how passing rash is it in a sinner 
to give a challenge ? Does it become him, whose life is measured out by 
crimes, to be extreme to mark and punctilious to resent whatever is amiss 
in others ? Must the duellist, who, now disdaining to forgive, so impe- 
riously demands satisfaction to the uttermost — must this man himself, 
trembling at the recollection of his oiFences, presently appear a suppliant 
before the mercy-seat of God ? Imagine this, (and the case is not ima- 
ginary,) and you cannot conceive an instance of greater inconsistency or 
of more presumptuous arrogance. Therefore " avenge not yourselves, 
but rather give place unto wrath; for vengeance is mine, I will repay, 
saith the Lord." Do you ask, then, how you shall conduct towards your 
enemy who hath lightly done you wrong ? If he be hungry, feed him ; 
if naked, clothe him ; if thirsty, give him drink. Such, had you pre- 
ferred your question to Jesus Christ, is the answer he had given you. 
By observing which, you will usually subdue^ and always act more ho- 
nourably than, your enemy. 



ELOQUENT EXTRACT. 475 



ELOQUENT EXTRACT. 

" The sea is his, and he made it." Its majesty is God. What is 
there more sublime than the trackless, desert, all-surrounding, unfathom- 
able sea ? What is there more peacefully sublime than the calm, gently- 
heaving, silent sea ? What is there more terribly sublime than the 
angry, dashing, foaming sea ? Power resistless, overwhelming power, 
is its attribute, and its expression, whether in the careless, conscious 
grandeur of its deep rest, or the wild tumult of its excited wrath. It is 
awful where its crested waves rise up to make a compact with the black 
clouds, and the howling winds, and the thunder, and the thunderbolt, 
and they sweep on, in the joy of their dread alliance, to do the Almighty's 
bidding. And it is awful too, when it stretches its broad level out to 
meet in quiet union the bended sky, and show in the line of meeting the 
vast rotundity of the world. There is majesty in its wide expanse, 
separating and enclosing the great continents of the earth, occupying 
two-thirds of the whole surface of the globe, penetrating the land with 
its bays and secondary seas, and receiving the constantly pouring tribute 
of every river, of every shore. There is majesty in its fulness, never 
diminishing, and never increasing. There is majesty in its integrity, for 
its whole vast surface is uniform; — in its local unity, for there is but 
one ocean, and the inhabitants of any one meridian spot may visit the 
inhabitants of any other in the wide world. Its depth is sublime — who 
can sound it ? Its strength is sublime — what fabric of man can resist 
it ! Its voice is sublime, whether in the prolonged song of its ripple, 
or the stern music of its roar ; whether it utters its hollow and melan- 
choly tones within a labyrinth of wave-worn caves, or thunder at the 
base of some huge promontory ; or beats against some toiling vessel's 
side, lulling the voyager to rest with its wild monotony ; or dies away 
with the calm and dying twilight, in gentle murmurs on some sheltered 
shore. What sight is there more magnificent than the quiet or the 
stormy sea ? What music is there, however artful, which can be com- 
pared with the natural and changeful melodies of the resounding sea? 

Its beauty is of God. It possesses it, in richness of its own ; it 
borrows it from earth, and air, and heaven. The clouds lend it the va- 
rious dyes of their wardrobe, and throw down upon it the broad masses 
of their shadows as they go sailing and sweeping by. The rainbow 
laves in it its many-coloured feet. The sun loves to visit it, and the 
moon, and the glittering brotherhood of planets and stars ; for they de- 
light themselves in its beauty. The sunbeams return from it, in showers 
of diamonds and glances of fire ; the moonbeams find it in a pathway 
of silver, when they dance to and fro with the breeze and the waves 
through the livelong night. It has a light, too, of its own, soft and 
streaming behind a milky-way of dim and uncertain lustre, like that 
which is shining dimly above. It harmonizes in its forms and sounds 
both with the night and the day. It cheerfully reflects the light, and 
unites solemnly with the darkness. It imparts sweetness to the music 
of men, and grandeur to the thunder of heaven. 



476 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



ALPINE SCENERY. 

It has always struck me that the ocean is the fittest emblem, and 
conveys the deepest impression of G-od's immensity and eternity ; the 
Alps, of his unapproachable power and everlasting unvariableness. In 
the sea, wave succeeds wave for ever and for ever ; billow swells upon 
billow, and you see no end thereof. But magnificent a spectacle as ocean 
ever is, at all times, and under all aspects, it still cannot be enjoyed with- 
out some alloy. It must be seen either from a ship, in which man enters 
too much ; or from the land, which again breaks the unity of the idea. 

The effect of the scenes among which the chamois-hunter lives, is 
weakened by no such intrusion as this. Man's works enter not there. 
From the moment he quits the chalet, in which he has taken his short 
rest, until his return, he sees no trace of man ; but dwells amid scenery 
stamped only with its Creator's omnipotence and immutability. Nature 
is always interesting. Elsewhere she is lovely, beautiful: here she is 
awful, sublime. Elsewhere she shrouds all things in a temporary repose, 
again to clothe them with surpassing beauty and verdure. But here 
there is no change : such as the first winter beheld them, after they 
sprang from the hands of their Great Architect, such they still are — 
like himself, unchangeable and unapproachable. Nor summer's heat 
nor winter's cold have any effect on their everlasting hues; nor can the 
track or works of man stain the purity of their unsullied snows ! His 
voice may not even reach that upper air to disturb "■ the sacred calm 
that breathes around'^ — that stilly silence which holds for ever, save 
when the lauwine wakes it with the voice of thunder ! In such situa- 
tions, it is impossible not to feel as far elevated in mind as in body, 
above the petty cares, the frivolous pursuits, " the low ambition" of 
this nether world. If any one desire really to feel that all is vanity 
here below ; if he wish to catch a glimpse of the yet undeveloped capa- 
bilities of his nature, of those mysterious longings, after which the 
heart of man so vainly yet so earnestly aspires ; let him wander among 
the higher Alps, and alone. 

Scenes like these must be seen and felt ; they cannot be described. 
Languages were formed in the plain ; and they have no words adequately 
to represent the sensations which all must have experienced among 
mountain scenery. A man may pass all his life in towns and the haunts 
of men, without knowing he possesses within him such feelings as a 
single day's chamois-hunting will awaken. A lighter and a purer air 
is breathed there ; and the body, being invigorated by exercise and tem- 
perance, renders the mind more capable of enjoyment. Though earthly 
sounds there are none, I have often remarked, amid this solemn silence, 
an iindefinable hum, which yet is not sound, but seems, as it were, the 
still small voice of Nature communing with the heart, through other 
senses than we are at present conscious of possessing. 

But not to analyze the cause of its charm, there is doubtless a fascina- 
tion in the lonely sublimities of Alpine scenery, which nothing else 
earthly, to my mind, can approach. And if the Arab feels such un- 



ALPINE SCENERY. 477 

governable rapture when launching his courser mto the bosom of the 
desert, is it to be wondered that the same transport should swell the 
Al2>hunter's breast, who enjoys the same sensation of freedom, the 
same absence of man, with the addition of scenery of unparalleled 
magnificence ? 

Seldom or never have I experienced such thrilling yet tranquil de- 
light as when reposing beneath some over-arching rock, in full view of 
Mont Blanc, or Monte Rosa, with my chasseurs at my side, and perhaps 
a dead chamois at my feet. 

All was calm and silent. Nothing near us spoke of animated life, 
except perchance a butterfly, borne by the storm far from its native 
flowers. We seemed alone in the world ; but how different is this lone- 
liness from that felt by those, " who, shut in chambers, think it loneli- 
ness I" It was a solitude that exalted, not debased, the mental facul- 
ties ; that soothed, that purified, that invigorated the soul 5 that taught 
one to forget this world indeed, but that raised the thoughts to another 
and a better world. 

If ever my earthly spirit has been roused to a more worthy contem- 
plation of the Almighty Author of creation, it has been at such mo- 
ments as these ; when I have looked around on a vast amphitheatre of 
rocks, torn by ten thousand storms, and of Alps clothed with the spot- 
less mantle of everlasting snow. Above me was the clear blue vault 
of heaven, which at such elevations seems so perceptibly nearer and 
more azure : far below me, the vast glacier, from whose chill bosom is- 
sues the future river, which is there commencing its long course to the 
ocean : high overhead, those icy pinnacles on which countless winters 
have spread their dazzling honours. Who is there that could see him- 
self surrounded by objects such as these, and not feel his soul elevated 
from nature to nature's Grod ? Yes, land of the mountain and the tor- 
rent ! land of the glacier and the avalanche ! who could wander amid 
thy solitudes of unrivalled magnificence, without catching a portion, at 
least, of the inspiration they are so calculated to excite ? I wonder not 
that thy sons, cradled among thy ever-matchless scenery, should cling 
with such filial affection to the mountain-breast that nursed them, and 
yearn for their native cot amid the luxuries of foreign cities ; when even 
a stranger, born in softer lands, and passing but a few months' pilgrim- 
age within thy borders, yet felt himself at once attached to thee as to a 
second home ; nor yet can hear without emotion the sounds that remind 
him of thy hills of freedom ! How has my heart beaten as, slinging 
my rifle at my back, and with walking-stafi' in hand, I have turned me 
from the evil cares and worse passions of cities, to meet the breeze, 
fresh from heaven, upon thy mountain's side, and listen to the Kuhrei- 
hen of thy pastoral sons ! I would not exchange the recollection of the 
hours I have passed among thy more hidden sublimities, for the actual 
and visible enjoyment of the tamer beauties of other countries ! The 
future none can command ; but deeply grieved indeed should I be if I 
thought I were never more to view thy pyramids of eternal snow hung 
in mid-heaven above me, nor tread again, though perchance with less 
elastic step, thy wide-spread fields of ice. 



478 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



VIRTUE. 

Virtue has resources buried in itself, which we know not till the 
invading hour calls them from their retreats. Surrounded by hosts 
without, and when nature itself, turned traitor, is its most deadly enemy 
within, it assumes a new and superhuman power, which is greater than 
nature itself. Whatever be its creed, whatever be its sect, from what- 
ever segment of the globe its orisons arise, virtue is God's empire, and 
from his throne of thrones he will defend it. The orbs of creation, the 
islands of light which float in myriads on the ocean of the universe ; 
suns that have no number, pouring lights upon worlds, that, untravelled 
by the wings of seraphim, spread through the depths of space without 
end ; these are, to the eye of Grod, but the creatures of a less exertion 
of his power born to blaze, to testify his power, and to perish. But 
virtue is more precious than all worlds, an emanation, an essence of 
himself, more ethereal than the angels, more durable than the palaces 
of heaven ; the mightiest masterpiece of Him who set the stars upon 
their courses, and filled chaos with a universe. Though cast into this 
distant earth, and struggling on the dim arena of a human heart, all 
things above are spectators of its conflict or enlisted in its cause. The 
angels have their charge over it ; the banners of archangels are on its 
side ; and from sphere to sphere, through the illimitable ether, and 
round the impenetrable darkness, at the feet of God, its triumph is 
hymned by harps which are strung to the glories of its Creator ! 



THE INTEMPERATE FATHER. 

Follow him, if you have a heart to do it, as he staggers along, now 
and then licking the ground, till he reaches his once peaceful home. 
" He's coming !'' cry the little innocents, as they look through the win- 
dow, but it is not the cry of joy, that welcomes the parent as he ap- 
proaches his tender family ; ah, no ! it is the cry of fear — of horror. 
See them flee from him as from a monster — look at the broken-hearted 
mother, as she takes up her affrighted boy and bathes him with her 
tears. " Ah," says she to her children, " your father once loved you — 
once he loved me — he was a kind husband, and a provident parent; but 
now we are forsaken ; your little tender feet feel the nipping frost ; your 
bodies shiver with cold ; your tattered clothes are falling from you, and 
I have no new ones to give ; you are hungry, but I have no bread for 
you ; the necessities of life your father was once wont to bring home to 
cheer our hearts, are now changed for the bottle, which some demon had 
furnished him with, perhaps as the reward of his day's labour. Oh, 
cruel employer ! come and behold the fruits of your iniquity ; see the 
miseries entailed upon the wretched mother, and the worse than father- 
less children, by your thirst of gain I" Let the imagination supply the 
remaining part of the awful picture. 



A SEA-SIDE SKETCH. 479 

A SEA-SIDE SKETCH. 

BY MISS MITrOKD. 

Like most of the inhabitants of this little island, I have been occa- 
sionally in the habit of spending some of the summer months and the 
early part of the autumn by the sea. But, excepting for one twelve- 
month of my life, I was never a resident on the coast, and that residence 
occurred when I was between the ages of eight and ten, rather short of 
the one period, and somewhat turned of the other. That was my only 
opportunity of making acquaintance with the mighty ocean in its winter 
sublimity of tempest and of storm ; and partly, perhaj)S, from the striking 
and awful nature of the impression, partly from some peculiarity of 
character and of situation, as a lonely, musing, visionary child, the recol- 
lection remains indelibly fixed in my memory, fresh and vivid, as if of 
yesterday. It was a bold and dangerous coast, and the wintry tempest 
was as perilous as it seemed. Often and often have I, refusing to go to 
bed, watched, at an upper window, with the maid whose business it was 
to attend me, on a December night, striving to catch a glimpse, through 
the almost palpable darkness, of some vessel struggling with the gale, 
whose position was shown momentarily by the brief glare of the minute 
gun, calling for unavailing aid, or the brighter flash of the lightning, 
which illumined sea an-d sky in lurid flame, only to leave them in a more 
frightful obscurity. I have gazed through many a midnight, with 
intense and breathless interest, on scenes like these ; and then, in the 
morning, I have seen the cold, bright, wintry sun shining on the dancing 
sea, still stirred by the breath of the tempest, and on the floating spray 
and parted timbers of the wreck. Once, too, and only once, I saw a 
human body thrown on shore amid the rocks. I watched the dark and 
strange-looking object (it was the corpse of a sailor) as it lay tossing on 
the waves, without, in the slightest degree, suspecting it was a dead 
body, until a fearful and unearthly shriek from a group of women 
assembled on the beach informed me, that the helpless and almost shape- 
less object which the waves had just flung ashore, was no other than the 
swollen and blackened remains of a fellow-creature. I shall never for- 
get that shriek. The wreck had been a trading vessel belonging to the 
port, and the women assembled were the wives, mothers, sisters, and 
children of the crew, one of whom had recognised her father in the dis- 
figured corpse. I never can forget that cry. 



It is related that when the Roman army took Syracuse, Archimedes, 
the great geometrician, was occupied with some geometrical demonstra- 
tion. He heard nothing of the sounds of confusion and strife, and was 
wholly insensible to all the scenes of suffering around him ; and when 
the soldier who took his life entered the room where he was sitting, 
calmly drawing the lines of a diagram, and placed a sword to his throat 
— " Hold, friend I" said Archimedes : " one moment, and my demonstra- 
tion will be finished !" 



480 FIBLDS'S SCKAP-EOOK. 



LIGHTNING RODS. 



It is most curious to find, that this very conductor or rod, which so 
many men of genius, learning, and ingenuity, have been at the pains 
to complete, — which, in fact, has always been regarded as one of the 
proudest trophies of science — was known and employed by a people of 
no more refined cultivation than the wild peasantry of Lombardy. The 
Abb^ Berthollet, in h'is work on the Electricity of Meteors, describes a 
practice used in one of the bastions of the Castle of Duino, on the 
shores of the Adriatic, which has existed from time immemorial, and 
which is literally neither more nor less than the process that enabled 
Franklin to bring down lightning from the clouds. An iron stafi^, it 
seems, was erected on the bastion of this castle during the summer, and 
it was part of the duty of the sentinel, whenever a storm threatened, to 
raise an iron-pointed halberd towards this staff. If, upon the approach 
of the halberd, sparks were emitted, (which, to the scientific mind, would 
show that the staff was charged with electricity from a thunder-cloud,) 
then the sentinel made sure that a storm impended, and he tolled a bell 
which sent forth the tidings of danger to the surrounding country. 
Nothing can be more delightfully amiable than the paternal care of its 
subjects which this interesting provision of the local government exem- 
plified. The admonishing sound of the bell was obeyed like a preterna- 
tural signal from the depths of the firmament; shepherds were seen 
hurrying over the valleys, urging their flocks from the exposed fields to 
places of shelter. The fishing-boats, with which the coast of the Adri- 
atic was generally studded, forthwith began to crowd sail and make for 
the nearest port, while many a supplication was put up from many a 
gentle and devout heart on shore, before some hallowed shrine, for the 
safety of the little fleet. 



THE HUMAN COUNTENANCE. 

There are few points in natural philosophy more remarkable than 
the infinite diversity in the human figure and countenance. There are, 
at this moment, eight hundred millions of human beings in existence, 
and no two alike, and yet all substantially the same. An extended view 
of this astonishing variety is obtained from the consideration, that since 
the creation of the world, there has passed av/ay more than a million 
times the number now in being, and that no two of them, or any now 
in life, were alike. And we have reason to believe, that of the endless 
myriads of those who have preceded us, or those who now exist, and 
who will follow us, each and every one had a distinguishing mark, either 
in voice or feature, figure, or a something not to be gauged or measured, 
and perhaps scarcely to be described. 



let's sit down and talk together. — THE RIVER. 481 



LET'S SIT DOWN AND TALK TOaETHER. 



BY MACKELLAR. 



Let's sit down and talk together 

Of the things of olden day. 
When we, like lambkins loosed from tether, 

Gayly tripp'd along the way. 
Time has touch'd us both with lightness, 

Leaving furrows here and there. 
And tinging with peculiar brightness 

Silvery threads among our hair. 

Let's sit down, and talk together ; 

Many years away have past. 
And fair and foul has been the weather 

Since we saw each other last. 
Many whom we loved are living 

In a better world than this ; 
And some among us still are giving 

Toil and thought for present bliss. 



Let's sit down and talk together-, 

Though the flowers of youth are dead. 
The ferns still grow among the heather, 

And for us their fragrance shed. 
Life has a thousand blessings in it 

Even for the aged man ; 
And God has hid in every minute 

Something we may wisely scan. 

Let's sit down and talk together; 

Boys we were, — we now are men ; 
We meet a while, but know not whether 

We shall meet to talk again. 
Parting time has come : how fleetly 

Speed the moments when their wings 
Are fann'd by breathings issuing sweetly 
• From a tongue that never stings ! 



ODE. 



BY THE BOSTON BAED. 



When Freedom midst the battle-storm 

Her weary head reclined. 
And roxmd her fair majestic form 

Oppression fain had twined ; 
Amidst the din — beneath the cloud. 

Great TTasAfec/foji appeared: 
With daring hand roll'd back the shroud. 

And thus the suiferer oheer'd. 

Spurn, spurn despair ! be great, be free ! 
With giant strength arise; 

Stretch, stretch thy pinions, Liberty, 
Thy ilag plant in the skies ! 

Clothe, clothe thyself in glory's robe. 
Let stars thy banner gem ; 

Rule, rule the sea— possess the globe- 
Wear victory's diadem. 



Go tell the world, a world is born, 

Another orb gives light ; 
Another sun illumes the morn. 

Another star the night ! 
Be just, be brave ! — and let thy name 

Henceforth Columbia be ; 
Wear, wear the oaken wreath of fame. 

The wreath of Liberty ! 

He said, and lo ! the stars of night 

Forth to her banner flew; 
And' morn, with pencil dipt in light. 

The blushes on it drew; 
Columbia's chieftain seized the prize, 

All gloriously unfurl'd ; 
Soar'd with it to his native skies, 

And waved it o'er the world. 



THE RIVER. 



Rivek! river! little river! 

Bright you sparkle on your way. 
O'er the yellow pebbles dancing. 
Through the flowers and foliage glancing. 

Like a child at play. 

River ! river ! swelling river ! 

On you rush o'er rough and smooth — 
Louder, faster, brawling, leaping 
Over rocks, by rose-bank sweeping. 

Like impetuous youth. 

River ! river ! brimming river ! 
Broad and deep and still as Time; 

2Q 31 



Seeming still— yet still in motiou. 
Tending onward to the ocean, 

Just like mortal prime. 

River ! river ! rapid river ! 

Swifter now you sUp away; 
Swift and silent as an arrow. 
Through a channel dark and narrow. 

Like life's closing day. 

River ! river ! headlong river ! 
Down you dash into the sea; 
Sea, that line hath never sounded. 
Sea, that voyage hath never rounded. 
Like eternity! 



482 PIBLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



It is mentioned in the Encyclopsedia Americana, as -a characteristic 
of the Mississippi, belonging to very few of the long and large . rivers, 
that it rises in very cold regions, and runs towards the equator. By 
thus flowing through almost every variety of climate, it is the channel 
of conveyance to a corresponding variety of products, and must thus 
become the scene of the most active internal commerce on the globe, in 
which the products of the extreme north will be exchanged against those 
of the almost tropical regions in which it disembogues. "If," says the 
article quoted, " we except the Amazon, probably no other valley on the 
globe will compare in size with that of the Mississippi ; and it probably 
surpasses all others in the richness and variety of its soil, and its general 
adaptation to the support and comfort of civilized man. In extent, it 
is like a continent; in beauty and fertility, it is the most perfect garden 
of nature." It embraces twenty degrees of latitude, and thirty of longi- 
tude, which we may observe to be equal to the distance between Gibraltar 
and Edinburgh, and to that which, in the same latitudes in Europe, 
comprehends Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and the Mediterranean enclosed 
between them and the western coast of Greece. From the Oleanne point 
on the Alleghany to the highest point of boat navigation on the Mis- 
souri, is five thousand miles — by water, of course. What a picture is 
this of magnitude and prospective wealth ! But how is the conception 
of it enlarged by the reflection, that it is the demesne of a people whose 
institutions give the greatest spur to industry, and make life in such a 
region best worth having ! 



MATERNAL LOVE. 



If there is one mortal feeling free from the impurities of earthly frailty, 
that tells us in its slightest breathings of its celestial origin, it is that of 
a mother's love — a mother's chaste, overwhelming, and everlasting love 
of her children. 

The name of a mother is our childhood's talisman, our refuge and 
safeguard in all our mimic misery ; 'tis the first half-formed word that 
falls from a babbling tongue ; the first idea that dawns upon the mind ; 
the first, the fondest, and the most lasting tie in which afi"ection can bind 
the heart of man. 

It is not a feeling of yesterday or to-day ; it is from the beginning the 
same, and unchangeable ] it owes its being to this world, but is inde- 
pendent and self-existent, enduring while one pulse of life animates the 
breast that fosters it ; and if there be any thing of mortality which sur- 
vives the grave, surely its best and noble passion will never perish. 

Oh ! it is a pure and holy emanation from Heaven's mercy, implanted 
in the breast of woman, for the dearest and wisest purposes, to be at 



MATERNAL LOVE. 483 

once her truest and most sacred pleasure, and the safety and blessing of 
her oifspring. 

'Tis not selfish passion, depending for its permanency on the recipro- 
cation of its advantages ; but in its sincerity it casteth out itself, and 
when the welfare of that object is at stake, it putteth away fear, and 
knoweth not weariness. It is not excited by form nor feature ; but 
rather by a happy perversion of perception, imbues all things with 
imaginary beauty. It watches over our helpless infancy with the cease- 
less benignity of a guardian angel, anticipates every childish wish, 
humours every childish fancy, soothes every transient sorrow, sings our 
sweet lullaby to rest, and cradles us on its warm and throbbing breast, 
and when pain and sickness prey upon the fragile form, what medicine 
is there like a mother's kisses ? what healing pillow like a mother's 
bosom ? 

And when launched upon the wide ocean of a tempestuous world, 
what eye gazes on our adventurous voyage with half the eagerness of 
maternal fondness, amid the sad yet not unpleasing contest of hopes, and 
fears, and deep anxieties ? 

When the rugged path of life has been bravely, patiently, and nobly 
trodden — when prosperity has smiled upon us — when virtue has upheld 
us amid the world's temptations — virtue which she herself first planted 
in us — and when fame has bound her laurels round us, is there a heart 
that throbs with a more lively or greater pleasure ? 

Yet it is not prosperity, with her smiles and beauty, that tries the 
purity and fervour of a mother's love ; it is in the dark and dreary 
precincts of adversity, amid the cold frowns of an unfeeling world, in 
poverty and despair, in sickness and in sorrow, that it shines with a 
brightness beyond mortality, and, stifling the secret agonies of his own 
bosom, strives but to pour balm and consolation on the wounded sufiFerer ; 
and the cup of misery, filled to overflowing, serves but to bind them 
more flrmly and dearly to each other, as the storms of winter bid the 
sheltering ivy twine itself more closely round the withering oak. 

Absence cannot chill a mother's love, nor can even vice itself destroy 
a mother's kindness. The lowest degradations of human frailty cannot 
wholly blot out the remembrance of the first fond yearnings of your 
affection, or the faint memorial of primeval innocence ; nay, it seems as 
if the very consciousness of the abject state of her erring child more 
fully developed the mighty force of that mysterious passion, which can 
forget and forgive all things ; and though the youth of her fairest hopes 
may be as one cast off' from God and man, yet will she not forsake him, 
but participate in all things save his wickedness ! 

I speak not of a mother's agonies when bending over the bed of death ! 
nor of Rachel weeping for her children, because they were not ! 

The love of a father may be as deep and sincere, yet it is calmei-, and, 
perhaps, more calculating, and more fully directed in the great periods 
and ends of life; it cannot descend to those minutise of affection, those 
watchful cares for the minor comforts and gratifications of existence, 
which a mother, from the finer sensibilities of her nature, can more 
readily appreciate. 



484 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Tiie pages of history abound with the records of maternal love in 
every age and clime and every rank of life ; but it is a lesson of never- 
ending presence, which the heart can feel and acknowledge, and needs 
not example to teach how to venerate. 

Can there be a being so vile and odious, so dead to nature's impulse, 
who, in return for constant care, such unvarying kindness, can willingly 
or heedlessly wound the heart that cherished him, and forsake the 
lonely one who nursed and sheltered him; who can madly sever the 
sweetest bonds of human union, and bring down the gray hairs of his 
parents with sorrow to the grave ; who can leave them in their old age 
to solitude and poverty, while he wantons in the pride of undeserved 
prosperity ? 

If there be, why let him abjure the name of man, and herd with the 
beasts that perish, or let him feel to distraction that worst of human 
miseries, 

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
To have a thankless child. 



EVENma MUSIC AT SEA. 

On one of the delicious afternoons of February, peculiar to the West 
Indies, as the sun was declining below the western horizon, the beautiful 
Hornet lay in a calm near the island of Cuba. The sea was uncom- 
monly smooth, imparting hardly sufficient motion to the buoyant ship, 
to disturb the sails as they lay listless against the masts. I had never, 
until then, fully realized the oft-repeated comparison of the bosom of 
the ocean to a mirror ; but now, the truth of it came home to me, and 
I felt that there was sublimity even in the calm of the " vasty deep." 
I could not gaze on it without being reminded, by contrasts, of the 
tempests that at times sweep Over it; and thus was its stillness associated 
with its commotion, its quiet with its power. 

But though no breath raised a ripple on its surface, there was a 
ceaseless, but gentle swell, as if, amid the coral beds beneath, some 
lonely water-spirit slumbered, while the waters above rose and fell with 
its steady breathing. Occasionally, " a sorrowing sea-bird" would flit 
by unheeded, or descending kiss the wave, and soar aloft again till lost 
in space. Then would a shining dolphin rush in pursuit of the terrified 
flying-fish, and anon glisten in the fair depths, almost shedding light 
through the waters with the gloss of his silvery sides. 

The sun was setting. How glowingly came upon me the force of 
these lines — 

Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, 
But one unclouded blaze of living light ! 

The whole ocean seemed of liquid gold ; and the sky, far up, glowed 
as if some blazing spirit hovered in the void. The rays of the sun, 
penetrating the water horizontally, looked like gilded cords, so distinct 
and brilliant was the refraction. It was a scene to inspire emotions of 
a lofty character. Before us was the glorious orb of light and life, sink- 



EVENING MUSIC AT SEA. 485 

ing, as it were, to rest in the wave-washed caverns of the deep ; beneath, 
rolled the limitless ocean — fit emblem of the eternity over which we 
hovered ; and above, spread the viewless ether, reflecting the deep blue 
of the wave beneath, unmarred by a single cloud. 

At this hour a few of the officers assembled on the forecastle to con- 
template the scene ; and, recalling the joys of other days, to hold that 
converse which in a small degree alleviates the privations of a seaman's 
life. With characteristic versatility, they j)assed from topic to topic, 
seldom dwelling long on one, till the shades of twilight fell around, their 
feelings assumed a congenial hue, and graver themes were touched. The 
pall of night, set with stars, was thrown about the expiring day, and the 
moon, shaking off her watery panoply, rose full and clear, shedding a 
broad stream of silver light as far as the eye could reach. 

Then it was the remembrance of the past crowded up like odours from 
a bed of flowers, lulling the feelings to that delicious calmness which 
pleasant memories always inspire, and which none feel more sensibly 
than the tempest-tossed mariner. The father dwelt in tenderness on his 
distant family; the brother recalled the unbidden assiduities of a sister's 
love ; and the son, as he leaned against the mast, his features set in the 
sedateness of sober reflection, felt his heart softened by the recollection 
of a mother's care. But few remarks were made. All felt that the 
silence which reigned above, beneath, and around should not be dis- 
turbed. Each one had retired to the recess of his own heart — a sanc- 
tuary too sacred to be violated. 

Such was the state of feeling, when a clear melodious voice slowly- 
poured forth the first line of that exquisite song — " Home, sweet 
home I" As the words, " Mid jjleasures and palaces," swelled upon the 
air, a single exclamation of pleasure escaped the hearers, and they again 
relapsed into silence. We had often heard the song, but never had it 
come so thrillingly as then. Had it been sung by even an ordinary per- 
former, its effect would have been great; but breathed, as it was, with a 
fervour and feeling I have never known excelled, in a voice full, manl}'', 
and touching, it could but produce a powerful impression. As the 
singer proceeded, the circle was augmented. The sturdy seaman seated 
himself with calm gravity, and, by the side of the youthful midship- 
man, listened with enthralled attention. The man whose locks were 
whitened, equally with the boy whose features were unmasked by the 
furrows of time and care, seemed to drink in the beautiful words as a 
healing draught. 

Oh, how magical is music at such an hour ! 

It comes to the heart like a flood of sunshine, dispelling its gathering 
mists, and causing high aspirations to spring into strength and beauty. 
The whole elevated above the narrowness of earth, and he seeks in 
thought to commune with the intelligence of a higher world, and with 
that Being 

Who plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 

Thus were the feelings of the listening group when the performer, at 
2q2 



486 riELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

the close of the first verse, elocraently burst forth with the words, "There's 
no place like home !" An emotion was visible in all. There was a 
tremour in his voice, showing that he felt the influence of the line ; and 
when he concluded it, his pause was longer than usual, and a deep sigh 
escaped him. 

When he recommenced — " An exile from home,'^ — the agitation in 
those around was merged in attention at the song, but his increased. His 
face was slightly averted, and the rays of the moon, as they fell upon it, 
and glistened in the tear that rested on his cheek, gave additional effect 
to the expression almost of agony stamped upon his features. He was, 
indeed as I know, " an exile from home," though from what cause I 
never could discover, — and the smothered grief of years was now loosed, 
and flowed in uni'estrained power over him. 

He continued. As the song drew to a close his emotion increased, 
with that of every one who listened. At length, as the line, " There's 
no place like home," rose on the stillness of the hour the last time, a rush 
of feeling was evident, and in many showed itself in tears ! The man, 
who from childhood had " braved the foaming brine," and had stood 
without fear on the brink of eternity ; and he, who, an outcast from the 
society of the virtuous and the good, knew no home, alike with the being 
of turbid passions and unhallowed deeds, gave a tribute to him who had 
so well-timed and so feelingly executed one of the most grateful songs 
that ever greets the seaman's ear. Oh ! it was good to look on men I 
had considered in iniquity, thus throwing open the floodgates of long- 
pent affections, that they might once more gladden and purify the soul ! 
I could not think such men entirely lost ; I could but look on human 
nature in a fairer and more pleasing aspect. 

No one spoke ; and after a few moments, in which all else was banished 
by the one dear thought of the distant home we had exchanged for our 
" home upon the deep," each one sought his pillow, I do not doubt, a 
purer and a better man. 



HOPE. 

I AM the child of the morning. I attend the bright spirits of the fairy- 
world, and gaze with the eye of an eagle upon the burning sun as it 
careers on high. I am not the offspring of poetry, although I often flit 
across the poet's world. I drink of the streams that flow from the 
regions of romance, and refresh myself among mines of sparkling 
rubies that are scattered along my path. Years are to me as nothing, 
for I am not the servant of time. Go ask the martyr at the stake what 
will cheer him w^hen the fagot blazes at his feet ? He will answer 
Hope. Ask the plague-stricken wretch, whose very touch is contamina- 
tion, and the air he breathes is poison, what sustains him in his agony ? 
He will answer Hope ! 

Without me, fame would lure but few to her blazing temple, for I cheer 
them on; when they are weary I point them onward; when they slumber 
I awake them; and when mists surround them, and they know not where 



PRACTICAL SCIENCE. 487 

to tread, I clear them a way, I open the path before them, smooth its rug- 
gedness, lure them onward with my "siren song" through delightful 
meadows, through groves, and by refreshing waters. 

I have seen the being bereft of me hold the dagger in his hand, while 
his raised arm and bared bosom told his determination : I have then 
returned — I have whispered in his ear — the dagger has fallen at his feet 
— the glow of health revisited his cheek — he has embraced his beloved, 
and shed tears of joy around the home I have thus given him. Think 
you that the incarcerated in the dungeon broods over nothing but his 
wrongs ? that he dreams of nothing but revenge ? No, no, I hold my 
magic glass before his vision, and the prison walls expand — flowers blow 
in his path — music in his ear — and those he loves he again embraces. 
These are alone for the innocent. I strengthen virtue — I add new hor- 
rors to vice — I forsake the wretched culprit, he dies not like a man. 
My habitation is not in the dark soul of the infidel, for I would lead 
him to virtue, point him to other worlds, reveal floods of light, of life, 
and of knowledge : he would cease to gloi-y in his nothingness, to ac- 
knowledge himself the " dark being of chance." 



PEACTICAL SCIENCE. 

The practical results of the progress of physics, chemistry, and me- 
chanics are of the most marvellous kind, and to make them all distinct 
would require a comparison of ancient and modern dates; ships that were 
moved by human labour in the ancient world are transported by the 
winds ; and a piece of steel, touched by the magnet, points to the mari- 
ner his unerring course from the old to the new world ; and by the exer- 
tions of one man of genius, aided by the resources of chemistry, a power 
which, by the old philosophers could hardly have been imagined, has 
been generated and applied to almost all the machinery of active life ; 
the steam-engine performs not only the labour of horses, but of man, 
by combinations which appear almost possessed of intelligence ; wagons 
are moved by it, constructions made, vessels caused to perform voyages 
in opposition to wind and tide, and a power placed in human hands which 
seems almost unlimited. To these novel and still extending improvements 
may be added others, which, though of a secondary kind, yet materially 
afiect the comforts of life — the collection from fossil materials of the 
elements of combustion, and applying them so as to illuminate, by a 
single operation, houses, streets, and even cities. If you look to the 
results of chemical arts, you will find new substances of the most extra- 
ordinary nature applied to various novel purposes ; you will find a few 
experiments in electricity leading to the marvellous results of disarming 
the thunder-cloud of its terrors, and you will see new instruments created 
by human ingenuity, possessing the same powers of the electrical organs 
of living animals. To whatever part of the vision of modern times you 
cast your eyes, you will find marks of superiority and improvement; and 
I wish to impress upon you the conviction, that the results of intellec- 



488 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

tual labour or scientific genius are permanent and incapable of being 
lost. Monarchs change their plans, governments their objects, a fleet or 
an army effect their purposes, and then pass away ; but a piece of steel 
touched by the magnet preserves its character for ever, and secures to 
man the dominion of the trackless ocean. A new period of society may 
send armies from the shores of the Baltic to those of the Eusine, and 
the empire of the followers of Mohammed may be broken in pieces by a 
northern people, and the dominion of the Britons in Asia may share the 
fate of that of Tamerlane or Zengiskhan ; but the steamboat which 
ascends the Delaware or the St. Lawrence will continue to be used, and 
will carry the civilization of an improved people into the deserts of North 
America and into the wilds of Canada. 



THE WIFE. 

Feel'st thou no joy, no quiet happiness, 

No soothing sense of satisfaction, in 

Loving, and being loved? Is there no weight 

Removed from the heart, in knowing there is one 

To share all, bear all with thee ? To soothe grief, 

Tea, to soften away its human pain 

By a superior love, the cup to temper 

With words of consolation and sweet hope, 

That even its very bitterness shall seem sweet, 

Forgotten in the love that offers it ! — E. L. Reade. 

Woman's love, like the rose blossoming in the arid desert, spreads its 
rays over the barren plain of the human heart, and while all round it is 
black and desolate, it rises more strengthened from the absence of every 
other charm. In no situation does the love of woman appear more beau- 
tiful, than in that of loife ; parents, brethren, and friends have claims 
upon the affections^ but the love of a wife is of a distinct and different 
nature. A daughter may yield her life to the preservation of a parent^ 
a sister may devote herself to a suffering brother, but the feelings whic'h 
induce her to this conduct are not such as those which lead a wife to 
follow the husband of her choice through every pain and peril that can 
befall him, to watch over him in danger, to cheer him in adversity, and 
even remain unalterable at his side in the depths of ignominy and shame. 
It is an heroic devotion which a woman displays in her adherence to the 
fortunes of a hapless husband. When we behold her in her domestic 
scenes, a mere passive creature of enjoyment, an intellectual toy, bright- 
ening the family circle with her endearments, and prized for the extreme 
joy which that presence and those endearments are calculated to impart, 
we can scarcely credit that the fragile being, who seems to hold her ex- 
istence by a thread, is capable of supporting the extreme of human 
suff'ering; nay, when the heart of man sinks beneath the weight of ■ 
agony, that she should maintain her pristine powers of delight, and by 
her words of comfort and of patience, lead the distracted murmurer to 
peace and resignation. 



VISIT TO A MAD-HOUSE. 489 



VISIT TO A MAD-HOUSE. 

BY MALCOM. 



We approached the asylum through spacious and beautiful grounds, 
and having passed its gates, were conducted by its superintendent to its 
secret cells. The first which we entered was tenanted by a raging 
maniac, who stood before us with fettered hands, and visage fierce and 
fiendlike, screaming curses upon nature, and shrieking out that there was 
no Grod. His eyes glared like balls of fire, and the hell that raged 
within him had scathed a once sanguine and athletic frame into a gaunt 
spectre — a ghastly and thunder-stricken ruin. Though but in the sum- 
mer of his years, his hair was silver gray, and streamed around his 
brow, in wild and wintery wreaths. His bold and reckless spirit, in the 
pride of intellectual power, had dared to search the unsearchable — to 
question — to doubt — to disi)elieve, till at length he sank into the abyss 
of atheism, and nature seemed such a fearful and inscrutable mystery 
to his bewildered mind, that he became horror-struck at his own thoughts, 
and went raving mad. His fits of blaspheming fury were succeeded by 
sudden dejection, and trembling terror, and sore dismay, when he would 
sink down on his knees and weep like a child. We gladly returned 
from this awful spectacle of a ruined spirit, and proceeded to the next 
apartment, in which we beheld a victim of the gaming table. 

Heir to a handsome fortune and naturally ambitious, he had associated 
with the magnates of the laud, and " vied in vanities" with the wealthi- 
est and the worst of its sons. But his means, though great, were not 
equal to his demands, and ashamed to retrench, he took to the gaming 
table, where, with hopes deferred, health impaired, and fortune wasted, 
his days and nights fevered away in agonizing dreams, till at length he 
was cast out from the haunts of St. James's, a beggar and a maniac. 
Upon entering the cell we found him seated on the floor, where, in 
imagination, he pursued a phantom game, and raising his head at our 
approach, he regarded us with a gaze of horror, and crying, with the 
voice of despair, <' Lost, all lost !" — struck his head with his clenched 
hands, and fell bick upon the floor exhausted with agony. 



"DiT) you ever see a fairy's funeral, madam ?" said Blake, the cele- 
brated English painter, to a lady who happened to sit by him in com- 
pany. " Never, sir," was the reply. " I have," said Blake ; " but not 
before last night. I was walking alone in my garden ; there was great 
stillness among the branches and flowers, and more than common sweet- 
ness in the air : I heard a low and pleasant sound, and knew not whence 
it came : at last I saw the broad leaf of a flower move, and underneath 
I saw a procession of creatures the size and colour of green and gray 
grasshoppers, bearing a body laid out on a rose-leaf, which they buried 
with songs, and then disappeared." 



490 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE PRESIDENT'S RECEPTION AT NEW YORK. 

[The following letter, from the pen of an accomplislied foreigner, was intended solely 
for the perusal of a London friend; but has been politely handed us for publication. — 
New York 3Iirri/r.] 

LETTER TO A TRIEND IN LONDON. 

I WISH you were in this country, my dear B., you would have much 
to learn, and to unlearn. You would be surprised and delighted, al- 
though you might miss some of your accustomed luxuries. I have not 
myself forgotten you, nor our friends, nor our merry old England ; and 
hallowed in my memory is the recollection of that spot, 

"Where Thames is seen, 
Gliding between his banks of green, 
While rival villas on each side 
Peep from their bowers to woo his tide, 
And like a Turk between two rows 
Of harem beauties, on he goes, 
A lover, loved for even the grace 
With which he slides from thek embrace !" 

But here are scenes, although strangely different, yet of wonderful mag- 
nificence, and a people who have been much misrepresented by foreign 
bookmakers. I am now in New York, staying at the Mansion-house, 
kept by a Mr. Bunker. It is in the lower part of Broadway, a large 

building not unlike , where, you remember, we put up together. 

This Broadway is really a fair street, several miles in length, and, al- 
though not remarkable for any splendid buildings, (the City Hall is a 
clever thing, surrounded by a small enclosure termed " the Park;") but 
throngs of well-dressed people occupy the sidewalks, and give it a 
fashionable and happy look. There is, at the southern termination of 
Broadway, a piece of land fenced off, divided into grass plots, and shaded 
with pleasant trees. It commands a view nest to the bay of Naples. 
It is, indeed, surprisingly beautiful, and provokes continual exclamations 
of delight from citizens as well as strangers. Before it and around it, 
stretches the broad bay, studded with islands, and bounded with a bright 
shore; steamboats, vessels of war, packet ships, sloops, and a great va- 
riety of small craft, are for ever gliding over it, giving the scene a 
striking character of animation. Here the military parade, fireworks 
are exhibited, balloons ascend, and a thousand other little local affairs 
attract large crowds. 

At present the city is all in commotion. It is quite an era, and a 
very interesting one, in the history of the town, from the fact, that the 
venerable President of the Republic is now, for the first time in many 
years, a visitor. He is a man of extraordinary character, and, from his 
earliest boyhood, has continually grown in popularity. You have heard 
me before speak of G-eneral Jackson, the famous hero of New Orleans 
— a military chieftain — a soldier of courage and genius, and unrivalled 
firmness and decision — a statesman, prompt, fearless, and- energetic. His 
coming to New York has been for some time a topic of newspaper com- 



THE president's RECEPTION AT NEW YORK. 491 

ment and congratulation, and of drawing-room as well as tavern dis- 
cussion. There is not, probably, living, a man so popular as this aged 
chief; his name is in ever3'body's mouth; his pictures, busts, &c. have, 
for many years, crowded the streets and print-shops, windows, parlours, 
libraries, barber-shops, taverns, &c. &c. &c., and, on certain public occa- 
sions, he has been from time immemorial, to the rising generation, repre- 
sented in the evening on an illuminated transparency, with one war- 
like hand resting on his unsheathed blade — a tremendous aifair, by the 
way, which might have tested the strength of Sir William Wallace — ■ 
and the other leaning on the flowing mane of a steed of superb outlines 
and dimensions, and so nettlesome, that we fancy the youthful Alexander 
would not have been as ready to back him as he was to mount Bu- 
cephalus. 

I do not mean to say that the President has been universally popular 
— no, no ; that would be a sad deviation from the custom of republics. 
There has been against him, as against all others, a party, whose opposi- 
tion has probably rendered the acclamations of his adherents more loud 
and apparent. Their watchword is, " Hurrah for Jackson l" There is 
not a little curly-pated imp of three years old, but will fling up his 
tattered hat and cry out, " Hurrah for Jackson I" For years and years 
this has been the state of the city in reference to their present Presi- 
dent; and many measures of his administration have tended to overflow 
the cup of his popularity, already full. The fact that, under his direc- 
tion, a dangerous question, which threatened a dissolution of the Union, 
has been amicably settled, has elevated the general enthusiasm and curi- 
osity beyond all bounds. Besides this, a recent personal insult, offered 
him by a crazy naval officer, has shocked the whole country, and all, 
friends and foes, appear equally anxious to make every possible repara- 
tion to him, whose gray hairs might have still protected him from actual 
assault, if no respect was felt for the dignity of the office and the ser- 
vices of the man. Hence you may judge, that on the day of his ex- 
pected arrival, the streets presented a curious spectacle. There are 
more than two hundred thousand inhabitants in New York, and, I do 
believe, the greater part of them thronged toward the place where the 
celebrated soldier and venerable statesman was expected to land. The 
scene was imposing, grand, and sublime. It will probably live on the 
page of history, as one of the most impressive and romantic events of 
the times. 

Fancy, my dear B., a proud, great city — lofty houses — trees — fences 
— all swarming with multitudes, all anxious to get a glimpse of the hero as 
he passed from the superb shore. On landing, he was received by Major 
G-eneral Morton at the head of his column, a gentleman of the old 
school, to whom I had letters from you, and with whose acquaintance I 
am greatly pleased. He addressed the President in an appropriate, con- 
cise, and pointed speech, and the line of march was taken up through 
the city. The distinguished visitor rode through the most magnificent 
street on this continent to his hotel. 

The Battery, a large area, was a living mass of human beings ; troops, 
horse and foot, and thousands and thousands of citizens ; the )jay covered 



492 PIBLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

with steamboats and other vessels ; fiags floating ; cannon roaring ; 
music swelling on the wind ; bursts from the trumpet that made the 
pulses wild, and, over the whole, the cheers and loud acclamations of the 
crowd. I was well accommodated with a seat at the hotel, which is 
situated (or, as the Americans say, "located") in the widest part of the 
street, and where the throng, carriages, carts, stages, gigs, horses, and 
foot-passengers amounted to suffocation, and furnished, certainly, one of 
the most impressive sights that I ever beheld. The wide street through 
which, for hours, the tide of human beings had been rushing steadily 
with the heavy sound and motion of a strong current, was at length filled 
and dammed up completely, as far as the eye could reach. Windows^ 
up to the fourth story ; nay, the very house-tops, and the roofs of the 
churches and all the public buildings were crowded. They were well- 
behaved folks, and waited patiently till a troop of horse rode through 
the vast, dense assembly, in order to make way for the principal object 
of interest, whose arrival had already been announced by the cannon. 
The trumpeter blew his blast, long and loud ; the hoofs of the horses 
rattled over the stones; a passage was at length cleared, only wide 
enough for two or three horsemen abreast. The President had been 
much abused ; his face, form, and health had been caricatured and mis- 
represented. He had been termed a feeble, sickly, dying old man, and 
by some an " old woman," suffering under the weakness of age and im- 
becility, and incapable of acting for himself. The excitement at this 
moment was really intense, and it was not allayed by a rumour which 
flew from lip to lip, that, in crossing from a fort a little out in the bay 
to the main land, the bridge had given way, and also a covered arch, 
bearing scores of people, a single moment after the President had passed 
from beneath it. All the great men in company with him had been 
precipitated, with numbers of others, into the water — and in the confu- 
sion of the moment, it was said that many were dangerously wounded, 
that some were killed, and that the escape of the President was miracu- 
lous. Presently my ears were stunned with the burst of voices which 
announced that the crowd had caught sight of him. The waving of 
hats and handkerchiefs grew nearer, till amid the thousands beneath me 
that rocked and heaved like a tumultuous sea, I saw a group of officers 
richly dressed, and among them, and distinguished by the simplicity of 
his attire — by his tall, commanding form and dignified demeanor — his 
bare venerable head and calm expression of face, I saw the President 
himself mounted — reining his horse with the air of an accomplished 
rider, and waving his hat continually, and bowing to the thousands and 
thousands who, above, below, and all around, were greeting his course 
with thundering cheers. Do you not remember a passage in Shakspeare 
exactly applicable to this ? 

Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed, 
Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know, 
With slow hut stately pace kept on his course : 
You would have thought the very windows spake. 
So many greedy looks of young and old 
Through casements darted their desiring eyes 



THE president's RECEPTION AT NEW YORK. 493 

Upon his visage ; and that all the walls, 

With painted imagery, had said at once, 

" Jesu preserve thee ! AVelcome, Bolingbroke !" 

Whilst he, from one side' to the other turning. 

Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck, 

Bespake them thus: — "I thank you, countrymen;" 

And thus, still doing, thus he pass'd along. 

Tliere was, really, in this sight a good deal of the moral sublime, Cin- 
cinnatus from his plough would scarcely appear more unassuming than 
this great man in his plain black dress. 

The city is all in excitement on this, as well as on one or two other 
subjects. A balloon has gone up — and an Indian chief with his son, and 
a prophet of the tribe which have been recently conquered by the go- 
vernment, are also in town. The Vice President, Mr. Van Bureu, is also 
a sojourner — and some of the Secretaries of the Departments — and yes- 
terday I ran against a gentleman, whom, upon a nearer view, I recognised 
as Washington Irving — and the dense knows what else there is to fer- 
ment the population. What did old mother TroUope mean by saying that 
the Americans had no enthusiasm ? Why, they are tinder. They burn 
spontaneously. Eight or ten thousand of them assembled yesterday on 
the Battery to see a balloon ascend. I am a great friend to balloons ; 
they are so elegant, and airy, and careless, like a fine gentleman, or a 
poet, or a belle, or a butterfly. They tell odd things of those inflated 
machines, too. You have heard of the aeronaut who ascended with his 
dog. The parachute was overturned at an indefinite height, and both 
were precipitated (that is scarcely the word — overset) into the air. The 
man fell, was whirled about for a long time by the conflicting currents 
of wind, and after having been abandoned to his fate for three or four 
hours, he heard his little dog somewhere near him barking in the air ! 
If I had not seen this story actually printed, I should scarcely believe 
it. The New York man is a bold fellow ; he goes up really in magni- 
ficent style. The inflation takes place in a fort, (now converted into a 
public ice-cream garden,) on the shore of the bay. The place itself is 
generally filled, and also the surrounding stream, walks, streets, &c., 
with boats, pedestrians, carriages, and all the et ceteras. Imagine a 
delicious, sunshiny afternoon ; a soft Italian air ; a heaven with scarcely 
a cloud, all blue and transparent* the thronging thousands waiting 
around. At length a little balloon — a pioneer — ascends, and is borne 
off rapidly by the light breeze, till it is lost in the sky. Presently the 
huge globe of brown silk looms up above the edges of the wall with a 
beautiful motion; swinging, floating, and displaying all the aspiring 
impulses of an eagle eager for the flight, and scarcely retainable on 
earth. 

The arrangements within are at length completed. The huge mass 
rises slowly, clear and free into the air. The car, with its adventurous 
pilot, is greeted with multitudinous cheers, and ofi" they float upward 
and away upon the gale — flags waving, huzzas mingling, cannon fii'ing, 
horses prancing, and the lonely vessel smoothly gliding into the blue and 
high distance till it fades to a speck. Among the spectators of this 
scene were Black Hawk and his party. These Indians are great curio- 
2R 



494 FIELDS'S SCKAP-BOOK. 

sities to DQe. Notliing makes me more strikingly realize tliat I am in 
America — that a broad ocean rolls between you and me. The savages 
who infest the frontiers of the republic have no idea that the whites com- 
prise more than a handful of men, and fancy they may be conquered by 
perseverance. Several of them were conducted on a tour through the 
country some years since, and of course were astonished. On going back 
to their people, they detailed the wonders they had seen ; but such 
monstrous stories gained no credit ; they were for some time the objects 
of ridicule and persecution, till at length, in self-defence, they recanted. 
It is the desire of the government that the present chief may see and 
judge for himself of the extent of the people with whom they presume 
to war. 

The President was also on the ground at the hour for the ascension 
of the balloon. He was, as before, ever greeted with acclamations, and 
continues to be the victim of reports. One paper says, " A story has 
become very current, that President Jackson intends uniting himself to 
a very amiable and accomplished lady in Connecticut, and that the 
nuptials are to be celebrated during his present visit. We presume the 
story, like many similar reports, is without the least foundation in truth." 
Another announces, that " among other tokens of respect which will be 
shown to the President and Vice President, shoixtjive thousand of the 
fairest of the fair, unmarried, and young, elegantly dressed in white, will 
join in a procession to meet and greet them on their arrival in Lowell, 
in the state of Massachusetts." 

Here is a specimen of the enthusiasm with which his words are 
observed and reported, from one of the newspapers : 

" When the President appeared on the balcony of the City Hall, and 
witnessed the countless multitudes of well-dressed, orderly citizens, who 
had assembled to do honour to the first magistrate of the republic, and 
to testify the reverence and affection so well due to the public services 
and individual character of the incumbent — when he heard the long 
rolling thunders of their enthusiastic cheering, he felt that it was to their 
noble and happy institutions that this people were doing honour, and 
were thus giving the most sincere of all pledges of their endearing attach- 
ment to, and worthiness of, such high advantages. His forgetfulness of 
self, and his singleness of devotion to the common weal, were never more 
strikingly displayed than in the half unconscious remark which fell from 
his lips, as the magnificent scene presented itself before him. Turning 
to Governor Marcy, with a quivering lip, but a brightening eye, he said, 
^^Nullification will never take root here \" Even at that moment, the 
proudest and dearest to himself in all his lifetime^ he could think only 
of his country and its welfare. 

As for myself, I have witnessed the entrance into cities of victorious 
generals and the coronations of kings, but I never saw a sight presenting 
such a striking example of the moral sublime, as the entrance into New 
York of that tall old man, in simple attire, with his gray, uncovered 
head, bending to the salutations of his countrymen. 

YourS; sincerely, 

F. A. K. 



THE GREAT WALL OF CHESTA. 495 



THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 

The most stupendous work of this country is the great wall that 
divides it from Northern Tartary. It is built exactly upon the same 
plan as the wall of Pekiu, being a mound of earth cased on each side 
with bricks or stone. The astonishing magnitude of the fabric consists 
not so much in the plan of the work as in the immense distance of 
fifteen hundred miles over which it is extended, over mountains of two 
and three thousand feet in height, across deep valleys and rivers. The 
materials of all the dwelling-houses of England and Scotland, supposing 
them to amount to one million eight hundred thousand, and to average, 
on the whole, two thousand cubic feet of masonry or brick work, are 
barely equivalent to the bulk or solid contents of the great wall of China. 
Nor are the projecting massy towers of stone and brick included in this 
calculation. These alone, supposing them to continue throughout at 
bow-shot distance, were calculated to contain as much masonry and brick 
work as all London. To give another idea of the mass of matter in 
this stupendous fabric, it may be observed that it is more than sufficient 
to surround the circumference of the earth on two of its great circles 
with two walls, each sis feet high and two feet thick ! It is to be under- 
stood, however, that in this calculation is included the earthy part in 
the middle of the wall. — Barrow's Travels in China. 



GASPIRINI, THE BANDIT. 

This bandit lived at Rochefort. For some years he was much dreaded 
by travellers, though never guilty of cruelty. Some years ago, he deter- 
mined to rob a diligence, as it was passing at nightfall through a wood. 
He stufied half a dozen coats, and fixed them on poles, with formidable 
caps and presented arms. When the diligence arrived, he ordered the 
postilion to stop ; he then made the conductor and passengers alight, 
and in a resolute tone, pointing to his supposed companions, whom he 
had arranged in the skirts of the wood, desired the trunks to be opened, 
and took what he thought proper, saying to the affrighted travellers, 
'^ Don't be alarmed, allow me to take what I require, and depend upon 
it my troops shall not advance a step further ; from them, I assure you, 
you have nothing to fear." When taken, he was sentenced to the gal- 
leys for life. When the gensd' armes went to scour the wood, they came 
up with half a dozen robbers, who appeared determined to stand their 
ground. They summoned them to surrender ; and receiving no reply, 
fired a volley, and advanced to the attack sword in hand. They then 
discovered that the banditti were but stuffed coats. — Statistics of France^ 
hy Letois Goldsmith. 



496 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



INDEPENDENT EXISTENCE OF MIND. 

We have, in truth, the same kind of evidence for the existence of 
mind that we have for the existence of matter ; namely, from its pro- 
perties ; and of the two, the former appears to be the least liable to 
deception. " Of all the truths we know," says Mr. Stewart, " the 
existence of mind is the most certain. Even the system of Berkely con- 
cerning the non-existence of matter is far more conceivable than that 
nothing but matter exists in the universe." A similar mode of reason- 
ing may be applied to the modification of materialism more prevalent in 
modern times, by which mind is considered as a result of organization, or, 
in other words, a function of the brain ; and upon which has been 
founded the conclusion, that, like our bodily senses, it will cease to be 
when the bodily frame is dissolved. The brain, it is true, is the centre 
of that influence on which depend sensation and motion. There is a 
remarkable connection between this organ and the manifestations of 
mind ; and by various diseases of the brain these manifestations are 
often modified, impaired, or suspended. We shall afterwards see that 
these results are very far from being uniform; but even if they were 
uniform, the facts would warrant no other conclusion than that the brain 
is the organ of communication between the mind and the external world. 
When the materialist advances a single step beyond this, he plunges at 
once into conclusions which are entirely gratuitous and unwarranted. 
We rest nothing more upon this argument, than that these conclusions 
are unwarranted ; but we might go farther than this, and contend, that 
the presumption is clearly on the other side, when we consider the 
broad and obvious distinctions which are exercised through the means of 
bodily organization. They do not admit of being brought into compari- 
son, and have nothing in common. The most exquisite of our bodily 
senses are entirely dependent for their exercise upon impressions from 
external things. We see not without the presence both of light and a 
body reflecting it; and if we could suppose light to be annihilated, 
though the eye were to retain its perfect condition, sight would be ex- 
tinguished. But mind owns no such dependence on external things, 
except in the origin of its knowledge in regard to them. When this 
knowledge has once been acquired, it is retained and recalled at pleasure ; 
and mind exercises its various functions without any dependence upon 
impressions from the external world. That which has long ceased to 
exist is still distinctly before it ; or is recalled, after having been long 
forgotten, in a manner even still more wonderful; and scenes, deeds, 
or beings, which never existed, are called up in long and harmonious 
succession, invested with all the characters of truth, and all the vivid- 
ness of present existence. The mind remembers, conceives, combines, 
and reasons; it loves, and fears, and hopes, in the total absence of any 
impression from without that can influence, in the smallest degree, these 
emotions ; and we have the fullest conviction that it would continue to 
exercise the same fuuetious in undiminished activity, though all mate- 



INDEPENDENT EXISTENCE OF MIND. 497 

rial things were at once annihilated. This argument, indeed, may be 
considered as only negative ; but this is all that the subject admits of. 
For, when we endeavour to speculate directly on the essence of mind, 
we are immediately lost in perplexity, in consequence of our total igno- 
rance of the subject, and the use of terms borrowed from analogies with 
material things. Hence the unsatisfactory nature of every physiological 
or metaphysical argument respecting the essence of mind, arising entirel}' 
from the attempt to reason the subject in a manner of which it is not 
susceptible. It admits not of any ordinary process of logic; for the 
facts on which it rests are the objects of consciousness only; and the 
argument must consist in an appeal to the consciousness of every man, 
that he feels a power within totally distinct from any function of the 
body. What other conception than this can he form of that power by 
which he recalls the past, and provides for the future — by which he 
ranges uncontrolled from world to world, and from system to system — 
surveys the works of all-creating Power, and rises to the contemplation 
of the Eternal Cause ? To what function of matter shall he liken that 
principle by which he loves and fears, and joys and sorrows — by which 
he is elevated with hope, excited by enthusiasm, or sunk in the horrors 
cf despair ? These changes also he feels, in many instances, to be equall}' 
independent of impressions from without, and of the condition of his 
bodily frame. In the most peaceful state of every corporeal function, 
passion, remorse, or anguish may range within ; and, while the body is 
racked by the most frightful diseases, the mind may repose in tranquillity 
and hope. He is taught by physiology, that every part of his body is 
in a constant state of change, and that, within a certain period, every 
particle of it is renewed. But, amid these changes, he feels that the 
being whom he calls himself remains essentially the same. In particu- 
lar, his remembrance of the occurrences of his early days, he feels to be 
totally inconsistent with the idea of an impression made upon a material 
organ, except he has recourse to the absurdity of supposing that one 
series of particles, as they departed, transferred the picture to those 
which came to occupy their room. If the being, then, which exists 
between the peculiar phenomena of mind, and those functions which we 
call mind or soul, be, to the utmost extent of our knowledge, thus dis- 
similar to, and distinct from any thing that we know to be a result of 
bodily organization, what reason have we to believe that it should be 
affected by any change in the arrangement of material organs, except in 
so far as relates to its intercourse with this external world. The effects 
of that change which we call the death of an animal body are nothing 
more than a change in the arrangement of its constituent elements; for 
it can be demonstrated, on the strictest principles of chemistry, that not 
one particle of these elements ceases to exist. We have, in fact, no con- 
ception of annihilation ; and our whole experience is opposed to the belief 
of one atom that ever existed having ceased to exist. There is, there- 
fore, as Dr. Brown has well remarked, in the very decay of the body, an 
analogy which would seem to indicate the continued existence of the 
thinking principle, since that which we term decay is itself only another 
name for continued existence. To conceive, then, that any thing mental 
2r2 32 



498 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

ceases to exist after death, when we know that every thing corporeal 
continues to exist, is a gratuitous assumption, contrary to every rule of 
philosophical inquiry, and in direct opposition, not only to all the facts 
relating to mind itself, but even to the analogy which is furnished by 
the dissolution of the bodily frame. 



THE FRIENDS. 

Forget thee ! in the banquet halls, 
Go ask my fellow-men ; 

Or ask the tear that secret falls. 
If I forsret thee then. 



At a lively pleasant party, towards the close of the fall of 18 — , I 

was introduced to Charles N . It was at the house of an intimate 

friend of mine, some little distance out of town. We had a ball in the 
evening, and, I recollect, were uncommonly gay. I never was in better 

spirits than in moving through a eotilion with the pretty Miss T : 

we both betrayed our ignorance of one part of the figure. There is 
something very agreeable, at times, in these mutual mistakes. When 
we had sat down after the first eotilion, my wandering attention was 
arrested by a young gentleman whose entrance I had not observed. He 
was apparently about twenty-seven years of age; his figure was thin, 
but fine ; his features were regular, his eye dark and expressive, and but 
for the gloom that rested on his pale countenance when I first beheld 
him., I should have called him eminently handsome. But in that gloom 
there was so much of mental sufiering, and so much of ahsolute wretch- 
edness — such an absence of all hope, and such a shade of settled despair — 
that you became uneasy while you contemplated it, and turned away as 
from an inspirer of painful thoughts. I felt the melancholy to be con- 
tagious, and began to chat and laugh with a group near me to draw off 
my attention from that gloomy brow and compressed and sunken lip; 
but in vain. My eyes involuntarily returned, as under the influence of 
fascination ; and, even while I talked with some appearance of earnest- 
ness to the lady who sat next to me, I could not avoid giving a stealthy 
glance at the young stranger. There he sat as I first remarked him — 
near a window, and somewhat retired from the rest of the company; 
his head resting on his hand, which he now and then passed through 
his rich, dark hair — from habit, as it were, for he was evidently in a 
revery, far from the present scene and its hilarity. The bright eyes of 
beautiful women, sparkling with animation and joyous excitement, attract- 
ed him not. The soft, half wanton whisper, and the louder tone of festal 
mirth, were equally unheeded. A lady was called upon to entertain the 
company with music. I was delighted to see her sit down to the harp — 
that loveliest of instruments — it shows off a fine voice and a fine arm 
so well. She commenced a sweet and plaintive air. It was an old- 
fashioned strain that I was fond of when a boy. The deep svv'ell of the 
music appeared to have a powerful effect upon the young stranger. He 



THE FRIENDS. 499 

started from his revery, roused himself, aud seemed determined to make 
up for his former unsociability by striving to be agreeable. I never saw a 
more sudden change in an individual. I would scarcely have recognised 
him, so altered was his countenance and manner. He began a gay 
conversation with a smiling, rosy-lipped little girl he had not before 
condescended to notice; offered her his arm, and they joined a group 
around the fair harper. I observed him. It appeared to me that his 
gayety was unnatural — unhealthy — forced. It was not the free flow of 
heartfelt joy. Probably it appeared the more so to me from contrasting 
it with the gloomy expression that first caught my notice. His deport- 
ment was now elegant and graceful ; and his attentions were evidently 
by no means unacceptable to the lovely creature who was hanging on 
his arm, nor to those who joined her for a share of the handsome young 
gentleman's conversation. This person had deeply interested me, and 
when the music was over I desired my friend to introduce me. He 
immediately complied ; and the stranger was introduced to me as Charles 

N , an English gentleman, who had just arrived from a tour through 

our country. Young men are soon acquainted, especially where there 
is a congeniality of sentiment and feeling ; and it was not long before 
we were engaged in an interesting conversation. His language was 
correct and polished, his address easy and gentlemanly ; he had travelled 
over the greater part of Europe, and his mind was well stored with 
information; his observations displayed a knowledge of the world, and, 
on literary subjects, a refined elegance of taste. I was much pleased 
with him, for he was decidedly a superior man. "When he grew animated 
on some subject that particularly interested him, and his eyes kindled, 
and his countenance shone with a transient enthusiasm, I thought him 
one of the most captivating beings I had ever beheld. But then there 
was that return of melancholy depression ; and when he had been 
wrought up to an excitement on any favourite effusion of poetry or 
romance, his countenance would settle down into an expression of exhaus- 
tion — a repose of gloom, which seemed natural to it, and the necessary 
reaction of an unusual excitement; then, by a painful effort, he would 
endeavour to keep up his share of the spirit of the conversation, and 
beam forth with some brilliant stroke of wit or lively sarcasm, and be 
mirthful for a moment ; and I could perceive that he possessed a keen 
sense of the ridiculous, and that, at a time when his mind was freer and 
his heart calmer, he must have been a most entertaining companion. 
I was convinced that there was some hidden grief that lay like an incubus 
on his soul, and shut out all enjoyment. I felt a powerful sympathy for 
him — a desire to alleviate his melancholy, not unmingled with a curiosity 
as to the cause. I kept near him during the remainder of the evening ; 
I exerted myself to appear cheerful; I endeavoured to lead him into 
conversation on topics in which I thought he would feel an interest, and 
to prevent the mind from reverting upon itself, and feeding on its own 
dark thoughts; I tried to draw him into the dance, but without effect. 
"I will enjoy it more by looking on," said he, with a faint smile — " I am 
afraid," added he, " my dancing days are over." He sighed. I rallied 
him about such a bachelor declaration in a fine-looking young f.dlow to 



500 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

whom the girls were waiting to be gracious ; but I saw it gave pain, and 
ceased. 

We stole off before the company broke up, and, as it was a beautiful 
moonlight night, with a fresh, bracing air, we agreed to walk home. He 
took my arm, and I accompanied him to his lodgings. Our conversation 
was on different topics; the persons we had met — the current news of 
the day 3 and there were long pauses; and each one appeared to be 
absorbed in his own meditations. Once we engaged on the subject of 
youthful hopes and attachments; but as I perceived it occasioned some 
painful emotion on his part, I began to chat about the beauty of the 
evening, and the pretty lady who had listened to his honej^ed flatteries, 
nothing loth. 

An acquaintance was formed, and we frequently met. Sometimes he 
was gay, and would give loose to his powers of wit and playful satire; some- 
times he was reserved, moody, sad. On all occasions he was unequal, 
and restless and fitful in his mirth. His vivacity would be crossed by 
that continually returning depth of gloom ; and his laugh would subside 
into an indescribable expression of internal suffering. There was a sad- 
ness that could not be removed ; and there was clearly remorse in it. I 
could perceive this in his start; his secret shudder, almost imperceptible 
in his troubled eye; and the slight perspiration on his fine manly brow. 
The vulture might be scared away for a moment, but was sure to return 
with a keener glance and a whetted beak. Still he was anxious to amuse, 
and would open his portfolio of engravings, some of which were very 
beautifully executed. He would describe such of the scenes as he had 
himself visited, and would now and then forget his griefs over some wild 
and beautiful landscape of Switzerland or Italy. He possessed a talent 
for drawing, and showed me a number of sketches he had made of our 
own scenery ; two of which I recognised, as they were views of scenery 
in my native state with which i was familiar. One of them was a 
romantic view on the Hudson near Catskill, the mountains in the distance. 
The other, a lovely, picturesque landscape near the Mohawk, with an 
extensive prospect of the river gracefully meandering through a fertile 
and varied country. He had a true feeling for the beauties of nature, 
and it was delightful to listen to the remarks that fell from him. 

One winter evening, about a month after our acquaintance had com- 
menced, we were sitting together in his room before a low fire. Candles 
had not yet been called ; and we sat for some time in silence, gazing 
upon the fire, that would kindle up into a bright flame, and then subside, 

in playful wantonness as it were. N was in one of his gloomiest 

reveries ; and I did not feel inclined to disturb him. He turned abruptly 

— "S ," said he, "have you not observed a strange inconsistency of 

conduct about me ?" I knew not what to reply, and hesitated. '' You 
must — you must," added he, in a mournful tone, " you must have 
remarked it ; but you want to spare my feelings. Alas ! it is not worth 
while." He passed his hand over his brow. " Where is the medicine 
can minister to a mind diseased, — pluck from the heart a rooted sorrow ?" 
His voice was tremulous, and his eye was filling. 

" S , you have no doubt wondered at the cause of my depression. 



THE FRIENDS. 501 

Listen to me. It is, this day, a year and six months since Edward 

G and myself crossed the Atlantic together." He stopped a 

moment. " We were school-fellows — class-mates — companions in the 
same sports — as fond and as intimate as boys can be — Oh ! those days of 
joy and disinterested kindness ! Gone, gone, for ever gone ! — Well, sir, 
■ — our destinations in life were different, but our intimacy continued. 
Edward went into mercantile life, and I to the studies of a profession. 
He was high-spirited and rather irascible ; but a generous, noble-hearted 

fellow. Our affection was ardent, and I believe natural." N 

paused, and then went on. '' He called on me one morning, and told 
me that he had an excellent offer to go to America, as an agent, for a 
very respectable house, and, if I would accompany him, he would accept 
of it. I had frequently expressed a desire of visiting America ; and we 
both thought the opportunity a good one. We bade adieu to our rela- 
tives and friends, and set sail ; we shared the same bed ; we nursed each 
other; poor Ned was uncommonly sea-sick; we were as brothers." His 
voice trembled, and there was a convulsive motion of his lip. '' But I 
must get over this." He drew his chair closer towards the fire. '' I 
■will get on with my story with more firmness — I am almost ashamed of 
myself, S . We arrived safely in Baltimore, the place of our desti- 
nation ; and, like most other young men in the heyday of life, mingled 
occasionally in scenes of dissipation. Edward had often spoken of his 
skill in a difficult and somewhat antiquated game of cards, and I thought 
with something of boasting and elation. I knew nothing of the game 3 
but for the purpose of tormenting him a little for' his vanity, and from a 
love of mischief, I resolved to apply myself secretly to it, and obtained 
a pretty good insight into the game without his knowing any thing of 
the matter. One evening we were sitting together with some acquaintances 
we had picked up, and to Edward's surprise, I defied him to his favour- 
ite game at cards. 

" ' Edward,' said I, 'you are always boasting of your skill. I know 
but little about the game, yet I lay you a wager Til beat you.' 

" Edward smiled with conscious superiority at my badinage, and pro- 
duced the cards. We played — Edward was skilful. I exerted myself 
to the utmost, and succeeded. Edward was surprised and chagrined. I 
did not bear my victory meekly ; on the contrary, I openly exulted, and 
gave free scope to my bantering humour. Edward demanded another 
game — he again lost. He became flushed, and drank several glasses of 
wine. He still persisted in the contest ; cursed his cards ; and was still 
unsuccessful. I was too deeply occupied in the game to observe his 
countenance ; and in my merriment at an uncommon turn of good luck, 
I let out an unfortunate witticism- — it was the drop in the full cup. 
Edward rose in a passion, dashed the cards from him, struck his clenched 
hand upon the table, and with eyes flashing fire, accused me of dealing 
unfairly. I was astonished ; and replied in what I thought a conciliating 
tone. But it was only adding fuel to the flame. He repeated his charges 
with vehement rapidity j and my temper began to rise. I told him he 
behaved like a child — that he was heated with wine, and that, in the 
morning, when he had slept off the effects of it, he would be ashamed 



502 PIBLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

of his present conduct. He rushed across the table, almost overturning 
it, and aimed a blow at my face. I received it on my arm. The gen- 
tlemen present rose, and insisted on his leaving the room. He did so, 
breathing threats and vengeance against me. As I expected, a challenge 
was handed me that night : and, I must confess, that, feeling indignant 
at his behaviour, I received it without reluctance. I arranged my papers, 
disposed of the little property I had, and wrote a letter to my parents. 
If the duel took place, I considered that the chances were against me ; 
and I endeavoured to prepare my mind for a fatal result. I had no 
experience with the pistol ; having only fired a few times in my life, at 
a mark, in sport. I requested a friend to act as my second, and appeared 
on the ground a little before the appointed time. Edward was not yet 
there. He shortly arrived, accompanied by a second. When I beheld 
my old school-fellow — the friend of my youth — and considered the pur- 
pose of our meeting, I felt a pang at my heart; and I believe the tears 
were in my eyes when I went up to him. 

" ' Edward,' said I, ' has it come to this ; must we fight ; we, who 
have known each other so long ; loved each other so dearly ; and for 
such a cause? Is there no way of settling this unhappy difference V 

" Edward's countenance was fixed and unrelenting. 

" ' Sir,' said he, coldly, ' if you choose to apologize for your unhand- 
some conduct last evening, I may receive your apology, and let the 
business go no further.' 

"I felt provoked, but kept down the angry reply that rose to my lips. 

"'Edward,' said I, 'you have grossly insulted me; struck me; if 
you will ask pardon for that outrage, I will willingly apologize for any 
provocation I may have given you.' 

"He interrupted me — 

" 'The blow was deserved, sir; deserved by your insolent sneering and 
mean conduct. I will not apologize for that.' 

" ' Edward,' said I, ' you wrong me. You encroach too far — by Hea- 
ven ! too far — the crushed worm will turn. And yet, I cannot — I can- 
not make up my mind to fire at my old companion.' 

" ' Damn it,' said Edward, with a sneer, turning to his second, ' I 
believe the man's afraid.' 

" This was enough. 

" ' Take your stand,' said I, sternly, 'and you shall see.' 

" The ground was measured ; we took our places, back to back ; the 
word was given — ' Wheel and fire !' — I obeyed mechanically ; raised 
my pistol — I am sure I took no aim — but my hand was firm ; I fired, 
and the next moment beheld Edward spring from the ground, quiver, 
and fall. The ball had entered his side. 1 went up to him. He had 
just time to falter out — 

"'lam dying — I have brought this on myself. Charles — my dear 
Charles — make your escape.' 

" He gasped, and died. I stood over him till I was urged off. I saw 
his body conveyed to the next inn, when the seconds thought me riding 
off with speed. I secreted myself to give one last look at the remains 
of my friend. But self-preservation impelled me, and I went away. I 



THE FRIENDS. 603 

travelled through the country ; I visited every place of note ; I have been 
in every metropolis in the United States ; I have been in the best and 
the gayest society ; I have entered into scenes of high dissipation ; I 
have made one of every festive celebration of any importance ; but I 
never can forget my friend's last look ; the impression will never wear 

off : in the festal hour, the figure of Edward Gr bleeding, with his 

countenance of agony, will rise before me. I hear his last words ; I 
behold him stiffening in death. He is with me when alone; he is with 
me in my dreams ; I fly to company and amusement, but he is with me 
there ; he follows me with equal step ; I cannot fly from myself, and his 
image is a portion of my being — no — no — no — I never shall forget 
him." 

He stopped, and leaned his head on the table. 

''Now," said he, "now can you wonder at my deportment V 

I was too much affected to reply. He continued — 

" I lead a wretched, wandering, unsettled life. I have no spirits to 
enjoy any thing. I feel an unwillingness to engage in any active em- 
ployment; and I take a morbid satisfaction in resigning myself with 
perfect inertness to the vagaries of my own gloomy fancy. My mind 
cannot exert itself, even upon those subjects of which it was most fond, 
and with which it has been most familiar. I am in a mental lethargy. 
My mind has lost its grasp. I read without pleasure. I think with- 
out improvement. My nerves are unstrung, and I sometimes think my 
memory fails — on all subjects but one — one, stamped with indelible, 
with burning characters on my heart and brain. I ought to return 
home — to my parents — to my profession. But as yet I cannot." 

He ceased. I sat a few minutes ; I could not conceal my agitation. 
I was grieved to see him thus, but knew that the voice of consolation or 
any cold reasoning would only prove offensive to him in his present state 
of mind. I took out my watch ; it was near ten. I pleaded that I had 
some papers to attend to before I went to bed ; and rose to depart. He 
took my hand. 

" Farewell," said he, " if I can, I will make up my mind to return 
home in the next packet." 

I whispered something of the soothing influence of time, and the solace 
of home, sweet home, and friends most dear to the wounded heart. He 
sighed, and wrung my hand. 

"Farewell," said he, "come and see me often. Do not wait for the 
ceremony of a return of visits. Between you and me that ceremony 
may now, I think, be well spared." 

I bade him good-night, and departed. I saw him but twice after- 
wards. He engaged a passage to the East Indies, and from thence he 
was to return to his native land. By this time I hope he is with his 
family, and happier than he was when I took leave of him on board the 
*' Achilles," bound for Canton. 

When Beau Brummell was questioned if he was unwell, he replied 
with ridiculous affectation, that he had caught cold through being put 
into a coffee-room with a damp stranger ! 



504 



FIELDS S SCRAP-BOOK. 



AN EXILE'S DREAM. 



Sweet dream ! to my pillow return, 
The heart-weary wanderer cheer ! 

Redeem from the mouldering uru 
The treasures to memory dear. 

Methought I awoke on the hill 
Where oft in my boyhood I slept; 

The leaf of the aspen was still — 
My dog to my pillow had crept. 

The moon, on my kindred's ahode. 
Shone bright as on midsummer's eve, 

"When I sprang o'er the dew-sprinkled road. 
The kisses of peace to receive. 

Joy lighted the white-column'd hall. 

Love smiled on the steps of the door; 
"While revelry woke at the call 
Of her who shall waken no more. 

The woodbine hung gay o'er the thatch. 
Now sunk with the wrecks of the wave ; 

And I saw on the half-open'd latch 
The hand that is dust in the grave. 

The corn-reapers sang on the hill 
Where now the wild wood-pigeon cries : 

How blithe was the hum of the mill 
Where lonely the winter- wind sighs ! 

Blest land ! shall 1 view thee no more ? 

Shall my feet never press thee again ? 
But fancy thy charms shall restore, 

For me they unfaded remain. 



Thy dome may be silent and cold, 
But memorj' claims it her own ; — 

The ruin I cannot behold 
To me shall be ever unknown. 

Thy groves may be leafless and shorn. 
Yet fancy still pictures their prime ; 

She hears not thy foresters mourn. 
She sees not the winter of time. 

The axe of the stranger has laid 
My bower of loved eglantine low. 

But memory visits their shade — 
Still, still in her Eden they grow. 

The faces I loved in their bloom 
All furrow'd and faded may be ; 

The hearts may be cold in the tomb 
That bounded in gladness with me ; 

But I shall not behold their decay. 
Nor tread on the turf where they sleep. 

Nor see round their mouldering clay 
The worms of the sepulchre creep. 

No — still I will beckon them near. 
While through the dim valley I roam ; 

Their voices at midnight I hear— 
They call the poor wanderer home. 

Beloved, ye assemble there still. 
The home of a father to share ; 

My path may be dreary and chill. 
But soon ye shall welcome me there. 



OUR WILLIAM. 



BY MACKELLAR. 



A LITTLE son — an only son — have we ; 
(God bless the lad, and keep him night and day, 
And lead him softly o'er this stony way!) 
He is blue-eyed, and flaxen hair has he, 
(Such, long ago, mine own was wont to be— 
And people say he much resembles me.) 
I've never heard a bird or runlet sing 
So sweetly as he talks. His words are small 
Sweet words— oh ! how deliciously they fall ! — 
Much like the sound of silver bells they ring, 
And fill the house with music. Beauty lies 
As naturally upon his cheek as bloom 
Upon a peach. Like morning vapour, flies 
Before his smile my mind's infrequent gloom. 

A jocund child is he, and full of fun: 

He laughs with happy heartiness ; and he 

His half-closed eyelids twinkles roguishly. 

Till from their lashes tears start up and run. 

The drops are bright as diamonds. When they roll 

Adown his cheek, they seem to be th' o'erflowing 

Of the deep well of love within his soul— 



The human tendernesses of his nature showing. 

'Tis pleasant to look on him while he sleeps: 

His plump and chubby arms, and delicate fingers, — 

The half-form'd smile that round his red lips creeps; 

The intellectual glow that faintly lingers 

Upon his countenance, as if he talks ' 

With some bright angel on his nightly walks. 

We tremble when we think that many a storm 

May beat upon him in the time to come, — 

That his now beautiful and fragile form 

May bear a burden sore and wearisome. 

Yet, so the stain of guiltiness and shame 

Be never placed upon his soul and name, — 

So he preserve his virtue though he die, — 

And to his God, his race, his country prove 

A faithful man, whom praise nor gold can buy. 

Nor threats of vile, designing men can move,— 

We ask no more. We trust that He who leads 

The footsteps of the feeble lamb, will hold 

This lamb of ours in mercy's pasture-fold. 

Where every inmate near the loving Shepherd feeds. 



THE CORDILLERAS, 501 



THE CORDILLERAS. 



The snowy peaks of the Andes were now frequently seen, from open- 
ings among the lower mountains leading to them ; and, apparently, op- 
posed an inaccessible barrier to the entrance into New Grenada. The 
more, indeed, a stranger gazes on them, the less he can conceive the 
practicability of passing them. The narrow paths leading to Paramos 
wind among wild mountains, which are totally uninhabited, and covered 
with immense forests overhanging the road, and almost excluding the light 
of day. The trees are of a vast size ; being constantly watered by the 
clouds they arrest in their passage, which perpetually hang on them, 
causing an incessant drizzling rain. This had rendered the path so 
slippery when our army passed, that they became excessively dangerous ; 
especially to the few tired mules and bullocks, that yet survived the 
fatigues of the march and a total privation of sustenance; for nothing 
whatever grows under these forest-trees, but ivy, moss, and lichens. In 
many parts, the torrents that rage from rock to rock, almost perpendicu- 
larly beneath the narrow pathway, were so far below, that their roar was 
scarcely heard; and, as the wearied animals fell one by one, they could 
be traced in their descent by the crushing of the shrubs growing in the 
clefts of the fearful precipice, until they were seen to roll down the foam- 
ing stream. * * * The appearance of the Andes among 
these elevated ranges is magnificently wild. Although they seem, when 
viewed from the lower mountains, to be completely covered with snow, 
yet there is little of it in the Paramos, except where it collects under 
the shelter of rocks ; for the incessant gusts of wind, that sweep through 
these bleak passes, prevent it from lodging in them. There are also, on 
the sides of some of the mighty peaks, precipices of solid rock, on which 
no snow can rest; but the general appearance of this range, when near, 
is that of mountains incrusted with ice, cracked in many places, from 
whence cascades are constantly rushing. There is no longer any beaten 
track, for the ground is rocky and broken; with not the least sign of 
vegetation, except dark-coloured lichens ; and, in some places, covered 
with patches of frozen snow. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to find the 
way ; for it is strewed with the bones of men and animals, that have 
perished in attempting to cross the Paramos in unfavourable weather. 
Multitudes of small crosses are fixed in the rocks, by some pious hands, 
in memory of former travellers who have died here ; and along the path 
are strewed fragments of saddlery, trunks, and various articles, that have 
been abandoned, and resemble the traces of a routed army. Huge pin- 
nacles of granite overhang many parts of these passes, apparently totter- 
ing, and on the point of overwhelming the daring traveller ; while terrific 
chasms, that are appalling to the sight, yawn far beneath, as if to receive 
him. A sense of extreme loneliness and remoteness from the world 
seizes on his mind, and is heightened by the dead silence that prevails; 
not a sound being heard, but the scream of the condor, and the monoto- 
nous murmur of the distant waterfall. Clouds are constantly sailing 
2S 



506 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

past, so deuse as to liide completely from the view the lower hills and 
forests ; and they frequently obscure the path in places, where the con- 
sequences of losing the way, or even of making one false step, are fear- 
ful to think of. It is indeed often necessary to lie down, for the purpose 
of avoiding the violence of the wind, which is most impetuous here. The 
sky above is one uninterrupted deep blue, and appears actually nearer 
the spectator than when he saw it from the valleys; but the rays 
of the sun, although his orb is perfectly cloudless, seem to possess 
no power of warming, and give a wan sickly light, like that of a full 
moon. * * * * During this night the heavens 

appeared of a dark blue, inclining to black ; the number of the stars was 
either really, or apparently, much increased, and their twinkling evidently 
a great deal brighter. The moon was also much more prominent and 
globular in appearance ; almost of a metallic lustre ; and the dark map 
on its surface was far plainer to the naked eye than when seen from 
below. We saw several very brilliant shooting stars ; but little differ- 
ence was observable, escept in the greater apparent length of their 
course, and rapidity of their motion. 



MAY YOU DIE AMONG YOUK KINDRED. 

BY GREENWOOD. 

It is a sad thing to feel that we must die away from our home. Tell 
not the invalid who is yearning after his distant country, that the atmo- 
sphere around him is soft; that the gales are filled with balm, and the 
flowers are springing from the green earth ; he knows that the softest 
air to his heart would be the air which hangs over his native land ; that 
more grateful than all the gales of the south, would breathe the low 
whispers of anxious affection; that the very icicles clinging to his own 
eaves, and the snow beating against his own windows, would be far more 
pleasant to his eyes, than the bloom and verdure which only more for- 
cibly remind him how far he is from that one spot which is dearer to him 
than the world beside. He may, indeed, find estimable friends, who will 
do all in their power to promote his comfort and assuage his pains ; biit 
they cannot supply the place of the long known and the long loved; they 
cannot read, as in a book, the mute language of his face ; they have not 
learned to wait upon his habits and anticipate his wants, and he has not 
learned to communicate, without hesitation, all his wishes, impressions, 
and thoughts to them. He feels that he is a stranger; and a more deso- 
late feeling than that could not visit his soul. How much is expressed 
by that form of oriental benediction — May you die among your kindred. 



Beau Brummell has always appeared to us to be one of the human fol- 
lies. His was a wasted life ! wit, grace, the keen eye, heart, and mind, 
were all surrendered, and given up to fashion ; the world was with him 
only a great show-room, and his body was but the machine on which 
tailors and drapers exhibited their clothes to the best advantage. 



SPOKTING WITH FEMALE AFFECTIONS. 507 



SPORTING WITH FEMALE AFFECTIONS. 

Man caniiot act a more perfidious part, 
Than use his utmost efforts to obtain 
A confidence in order to deceive. 

Honour and integrity ought to be the leading principles of every 
transaction in life. These are virtues highly requisite, notwithstanding 
they are too frequently disregarded. Whatever pursuits individuals are 
in quest of, sincerity in profession, steadfastness in pursuit, and punctu- 
ality in discharging engagements, are indispensably incumbent. A man 
of honest integrity, and uprightness in his dealings with his fellow- 
creatures, is sure to gain the confidence and applause of all good men ; 
■while he who acts from dishonest or designing principles obtains de- 
served contempt. Dishonest proceedings, in word or deed, are very 
offensive to and unjustifiable in the sight of Grod and man, even in 
trivial, but much more so in consequential affairs. The most perfect 
uprightness is highly requisite between man and man, though it is too 
often disregarded, and is much more so between the sexes. Every pro- 
fession of regard should be without dissembling, every promise preserved 
inviolate, and every engagement faithfully discharged. No one ought 
to make any offers or pretensions to a lady before he is, in a great mea- 
sure, certain her person, her temper, and qualifications suit his circum- 
stances, and agree perfectly with his own temper and way of thinking. 
For a similarity of mind and manners is very necessary to render the 
bonds of love permanent, and those of marriage happy. 

Marriage the happiest state of life would be, 
If hands were only join'd where hearts agree. 

The man of uprightness and integrity of heart will not only observe 
the beauties of the mind, the goodness of the heart, the dignity of 
sentiment, and the delicacy of wit, but will strive to fix his affections on 
such permanent endowments, before he pledges faith to any lady. 

He looks upon marriage as a business of the greatest importance in 
life, and a change of condition that cannot be undertaken with too 
much reverence and deliberation. Therefore, he will not undertake it at 
random, lest he should precipitately involve himself in the greatest diffi- 
culties. He wishes to act a conscientious part, and consequently cannot 
think (notwithstanding it is too much countenanced by custom) of sport- 
ing with the affections of the fair sex, nor even of paying his addresses 
to any one till he is perfectly convinced his own are fixed on just 
principles. 

All imaginable caution is certainly necessary beforehand ; but after a 
man's profession of regard, and kind services, and solicitations have made 
an impression on a female heart, it is no longer a matter of indifference 
whether he perseveres in or breaks off his engagement. For he is then 
particularly dear to her, and reason, honour, justice, all unite to oblige 
him to make good his engagement. When the matter is brought to 
such a crisis, there is no retreating, without manifestly disturbing her 



508 FIELDS'S SCEAP-BOOK. 

quiet and tranquillity of mind ; nor can any thing but her loss of virtue 
justify her desertion. Whether marriage has been expressly promised 
or not, it is of little signification. For if he has solicited and obtained 
her affections, on the supposition that he intended to marry her, the 
contract is, in the sight of Heaven, sufficiently binding. In short, the 
man who basely imposes on the honest heart of an unsuspecting girl, 
and, after winning her affections by the prevailing rhetoric of courtship, 
ungenerously leaves her to bitter sorrow and complaining, acts a very 
dishonourable part, and is more to be detested than a common robber. 
For private treachery is much more heinous than open force ; and money 
must not be put in competition with happiness. 



THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 

The steady diffusion of taste for the study of natural history in this 
country is extremely gratifying. It is this study which teaches us to 
look up from nature to the Author of nature. Nature is infinitely 
diversified, and yet each production makes its appearance at the time and 
under the circumstances which we should be led to expect. A plan 
so perfect and harmonious, of which the parts are so diversified, and yet 
so mutually promote the existence of each other — which blend the sea, 
the land, and the air into one whole, and, though always perishing, are 
always reproduced — offers a field of contemplation which the longest life 
and the most active mind cannot exhaust; and it has the advantage 
over every other subject of study; it presents or awakens none of those 
bad passions and imperfections that present themselves when man and 
his works are the objects of our inquiry. 

It has these farther advantages, that the stud}^, instead of a labour, is 
a constant delight; that the details are quite as interesting as the whole; 
that the subjects which are too small to be seen by the naked eye are 
just as perfect in all their parts, and as wonderful in the use of them, as 
those which are of the most huge dimensions. The little green moss that 
is as a pin's point upon a wall or the bark of a tree, or the fungus that 
makes a barely visible speck upon a leaf, is as perfect in its structure, 
and as full of life as the pine or the oak that rises majestically over the 
forest, and exhibits itself to an entii'e country, or as a landmark for the sea- 
man. The aphis, that scarcely crumples the rose-leaf, or the animalculse, 
of which myriads do not render a drop of water turbid, are as equally 
complete, and in some respects much more curious than the horse or the 
elephant. Of the aphis, nine distinct generations, all females, succeed 
each other every summer, and yet each produces a numerous progeny ; 
and some of the animalculae increase in number by a spontaneous divi- 
sion of the little bodies of those previously existing. 

In order to understand the subject, we must, indeed, study the small 
as well as the great, the common as well as the rare. The most uncom- 
mon and majestic animals cannot tell us more than the worm we trample 
under foot, or the caterpillar we destroy as a nuisance. Nor does the 



THE STUDY OP NATURAL HISTORY. 509 

utility diminish with the size. Silk, the finest substance 'with which we 
are clothed ; carmine, the finest colour with which we can paint ; and 
the very ink with which we write, are all the productions of little 
insects. 

In contemplating the structure of any plant or animal, however com- 
mon, and however on that account overlooked or disregarded, we may 
find finer applications of mechanical art, and nicer processes in chemistry, 
than the collected art of the whole human race can boast of. That the 
vegetable principle in an acorn should be chemist enough to fabricate 
oak timber, and bark, and leaves, and new acorns ; and mechanic enough 
to rear the tree in the air against the natural tendency of gravitation, 
and in spite of the violence of the winds, and do all this by means of a 
little portion of matter that can be kept for a considerable time as if it 
were dead, is truly astonishing. It is equally demonstrative of power 
and wisdom in Him who gave the impulse, that out of the same soil and 
the same atmosphere, each plant should elaborate that which properly 
belongs to it; that the flower of one plant should be crimson, that of 
the next yellow ; that one should delight us with its perfume, and the 
very next one offend us by its fetor; or that food, medicine, or a poison, 
should be found the closest neighbours. 

In the single department of botany, we have thus not only a fund of 
the most curious information, but of information which is practically 
useful at every step. Even from the mere forms of vegetables, we have 
some of the choicest of our ornaments, and have taken some of the most 
useful hints in our architecture. The engineer who first succeeded in 
fixing upon the dangerous rocks of Eddystone a lighthouse that resisted 
the violence of the raging sea, moulded its contour from the bole of a 
ti'ee which had withstood the tempests of ages ; and the model was found 
so admirably adapted to the purpose, that it has been copied in similar 
cases ever since. 

The sure way to become naturalists, in the most pleasing sense of the 
term, is to observe the habits of the plants and animals we see around 
us, not so much with the view of finding out what is new or uncommon, 
as of becoming well acquainted with what is of every-day occurrence. 
Nor is this a task of difiiculty, or one of dull routine. Every change of 
elevation or of temperature is accompanied by a variation both in plants 
and animals ; and every season and week, nay almost every day, brings 
something new; so that while the book of nature is so accessible, it is as 
varied as the books of a library. In whatever place or at whatever time one 
may be disposed to take a walk — in the most sublime scenes or on the 
bleakest wastes, on arid downs or by the margins of rivers or lakes, 
inland or by the sea-shore, in the wild or on the cultivated ground, and 
in all kinds of weather and at all seasons of the year — nature is open to 
our inquiry. The sky over us; the earth beneath our feet; the scenery 
around ; the animals that gambol in the open spaces ; those that hide them- 
selves in coverts ; the birds that twitter on the wing ; sing in the grove ; 
ride upon the wave, or float along the sky ; with the fishes that tenant 
the waters; the insects that make the summer air alive; all that Grod has 
made is to us for knowledge, and pleasure, and usefulness, and health ; 
2s2 



510 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

and when we have studied and known the wonders of his workmanship, 
we have made one important step toward the adoration of his omnipo- 
tence, and obedience to his will. Should our present publication increase 
the resources of amusement and instruction to the public, or contribute 
to the results alluded to above, we shall feel amply rewarded for our 
humble labours in this compilation. 



DISAPPOINTMENT. 



When the shades of solitude have encompassed a man; when 
the voice of passion is silent, and the song of pleasure has ceased to 
vibrate on his ear; when reason is restored to her throne, and every 
avenue is open to reflection ; then, if ever in his days of boyhood he was 
betrayed into some folly of which he has in vain repented, or led into 
some error, the consequences of which he must for ever deplore, the 
remembrance of those days will rush upon his mind; those scenes will 
be re-acted before his eyes ; memory will only add intenseness to the 
pang of guilt. Disappointment is in itself bitter ; but when the remem- 
brance of past follies is added to the scene of present suffering, it fills up 
the cup of agony. But the medicine, though bitter, is salutary, and 
should be drunk without a murmur. If thou hast lost the hope most 
dear to thy heart, seek not to overpower the voice of conscience by the 
noise of the world's folly, or to drown the memory of thy disappointment 
in the tide of dissipation ; but ponder on the vanity of earthly pursuits, 
and it may be that thy disappointments will lead thee to Him who 
chasteneth whom he loveth. For he who has lost his hopes of happiness 
here must feel that it is elsewhere to be sought. There is something in 
disappointment that forcibly leads the mind to reflect on the delusive 
nature of earthly pleasures, and the necessity of fixing its hopes of hap- 
piness on a firmer basis than the vanities of this world. While the first 
burst of grief continues, we may be tempted to murmur against the hand 
that has smitten us. But when time has removed the poignancy of sor- 
row, when we can look around with calmness and resignation, and feel 
that the hopes we indulged are blasted for ever, then we turn with disgust 
from the objects of our former desire, and seek for those which are more 
worthy of our affection ; as the ivy, which has wound itself around some 
prop, when that is removed, will entwine itself around some favourite 
object, and seek a more faithful support for its broken fibres. Who can 
experience the perfidy of a supposed friend, and not feel that he who puts 
his trust in man leaneth on a broken reed? Who can be present at that 
solemn scene when man goeth to his long home, " and the mourners go 
about the streets," and not realize that " man cometh forth like a flower, 
and is cut down ?" Yes ! there is a language in disappointment louder 
than the thunders of heaven ; for it speaks to the heart, and not to the 
ear. Oh ! he who has lost his hopes of happiness here must indeed feel 
that they are to be placed on a more firm foundation than this earth can 
afford. 



A FRAGMENT. 511 



A FRAGMENT. 

AFTER THE MAX^'BE, OF OSSIAN. 

* * * * Co^iE ! let us sit by the edge of this precipice, and I will 
tell you of the friend of my soul; him whose bones are now slumbering 
under that rude heap of stones. What a deep sunless chasm is here ! 
Hark ! a huge rock has just tumbled, but the noise of its fall is lost in 
the sullen roar of that smoking torrent, which rushes like a stream of 
fire through the darkness. Often did my friend lean over this brink, 
listening to the wild music of the waters, gazing as if he saw heaven in 
the abyss. 

His soul was gloomy. From his childhood, he shunned the concourse 
of men, for his delight was to commune with the dark and giant forms 
of nature. He roamed through pathless woods, over untrodden moun- 
tains. The treeless cliff and darkened ocean were his pleasure ; his music, 
the wailing winds of autumn or fierce blasts of winter. A mouldering 
moss-grown tower, or blasted pine, standing lone on the heath, he would 
gaze upon, as if looking at the ghosts of the beautiful dead. His stern 
soul rejoiced with terrible joy as, in fancy, he coursed the clouds with 
the rolling thunder, or sported with the wild lightning on the bosom of 
the storm. Yet was his soul generous : his heart tender — tender as the 
young plant in spring, moist as the dews of the morning. 

He loved knowledge, but soon tired of human teaching. Fame called 
him onward: he grasped her; her gaud}^ colours fell at the touch, and 
his soul was withered. He sought where hosts of warriors had met — 
the lightning of arms and thunder of the battle filled him with raging 
joy; at length he departed sickened with slaughter. 

He fled from the face of man, and made his bed in the fields. The 
heavens were his curtains, the turf his pillow. He dreamed of vanities. 
Now he pursued Pleasure, and caught her ; suddenly he felt the coil of 
a serpent about him — its red fang was in his heart. Then he saw Glory 
on an eminence ; he strove, he toiled, he clambered, he reached forth 
his hand — she rolled away in vapour. 

He wandered in loneliness. At twilight he sat by the dead trunk of 
an oak. The wind whistled among its bare branches. It was then I 
saw him : I heard his plaints. " My soul is as the trunk of this oak — • 
joyless, leafless, lifeless. The world is a waste. The objects of mortals 
are not mine. Nature once smiled : its charms have gone. Nor wood, 
nor mountain, nor ocean's wave, nor the rude cliff", nor rocky pass, nor 
sun, moon, stars, delight me any more. Oh, when shall these eyes close 
to what no longer can please? Mortals had long left the time-worn 
tower and crumbling castle. Unseen their tottering walls have fallen, 
and the noise has startled silence alone. So may I fall, for the strength 
and joy of my soul have departed. earth, earth, here let me die ! 
Though my bones whiten in all the winds of heaven, yet pleasant to me 
is the long, dreamless sleep." He threw himself on the ground, and I 
approached him. I then knew him not, but my heart pitied him. I 



512 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

spoke the words of comfort : he raised his head and listened. His coun- 
tenance was goodly. His eye shone as with the red light of a fire, seen 
far off through the mists of ocean. Troubled sadness overspread his 
face, like the storm in the dark forest. Our souls mingled into one, for 
our thoughts were alike. 

I brought him to my home. He saw my sister, the bright-browed 
Armina, and love swam in his eye. They met in secret ; their lips told 
the passion of their souls. Their affections were mingled and blended 
like the embracing hues of a rainbow. Their walk was often through 
the lone wood, or by the silent stream. The gloom of his soul was past, 
for she was the light of his heart. 

They wandered by Casmar's winding stream; they stood where grass- 
grown rocks are overhanging. He was like the tall poplar, seen at set- 
ting sun on some high hill ; proudly it waves its lofty summit, and still 
aspires to heaven. She was the drooping willow, bending over the glassy 
wave: the gentlest gale lifteth its frail branches, that with downcast 
beauty would stem the blast. Ah ! little thought Thuron, as he gazed 
on this lovely tree, how soon its frail branches should be trodden in 
dust, how sudden should wither its beauty, like the lone flower before 
the burning breath of the desert. 

He gazed : in his gaze, her loveliness grew. Her head rested on his 
shoulder; her moist, dark eye was lifted to his; their souls flowed to- 
gether. Her snowy arm was thrown lightly on his neck; her playful 
fingers sported with his dark locks, floating in the breeze. A rock stood 
not far distant ; in it was a little recess, covered with dewy grass. A 
sparkling stream issued from a cleft ; near it brightly bloomed two wild 
flowers, tenderly intertwining their stalks. ''Let me pluck them, for 
sweet-smelling is the flower of the rock." She plucked— the flowers 
fell from her hand, a faint shriek rose on the air; she fell lifeless on his 
breast. In horror, he clasps her light form; but the beam of her eye 
was quenched. Blood stained her snowy robe; a viper was curling in 
her bosom. 

I pursued the chase in a neighbouring forest, when the cry of agony 
reached my ear. Hastily I rushed to whence the sound came. I have 
seen the bent form of a mother over her dead babe. The keen winds 
of winter scattered her hair; she hears, she feels them not; the tram- 
pling of the war-horse passed by her; she raises not her head. Her 
dishevelled locks play over the cold features of her infant ; her lips 
press the white brow ; an unfrequent tear falls on the snowy cheek. A 
pitying hand touched her shoulder, but her unanswering spirit had left 
the flxed form to seek the ghost of her babe. I have seen the timid 
maiden on the field of battle. Careless of the frantic rage of warriors 
or bright gleaming of swords, she tears her white robe to stanch the 
blood of her fallen hero. Above his helpless form, she lifts her heav- 
ing bosom toward the meteor-spears. Her agony, who can tell ? These 
have I seen — the grief of Thuron I never saw. He had placed her 
half-reclined against a grassy steep. Her beamless eyes were open, but 
saw not; her head had fallen forward on her bosom; her breast, seen 
when the wind parted the bright hair that hung down carelessly over 



A FRAGMENT. 513 

her features, was slightly stained with blood. Her light fingers were 
clenched around a stray ringlet playing over the wound, as if the last 
thought was, that the reptile still hung at her bosom. And my grief 
arose, for she was my sister, my only, my lovely sister. But, alas ! poor 
Thuron, thy soul was broken in pieces ; thy heart was crushed ! He 
stood at a distance, his lightless eye lifted to heaven, his finger pointed 
to the lonely dead. A dagger gleamed in his hand. Sudden, he dropped 
the weapon and rushed where she lay. He laid his burning palm on her 
forehead. He parted the shading ringlets and gazed wistfully on her 
face. A tear fell from his eye. I knelt beside him, and kissed her 
bloodless cheek. We moved not; we spake not; our eyes were fixed on 
her unconscious loveliness. The lengthening shadows of the mountains 
came over us; the mellow twilight hurried around; the darkness of mid- 
night was abroad ; and we knelt still. The mountain dews moisten us 
unfelt; the distant voice of the wind, sighing in the clefts of the rocks, 
is unheard. But M'hy tell of the agony that is speechless, — of the grief 
that freezes the soul ? We laid her in the grave ; a rude heap of stones 
is her only memorial. Often, they say, is her spirit seen, like the faint 
flash of twilight lightning, glancing near the rock of wild flowers on 
Casmar's winding stream. 

But Thuron, unhappy Thuron, again departed from the society of men, 
I alone knew of his haunts. 

It was night. The spirit of the storm was abroad. The old oak of 
the mountain was uprooted ; swelling torrents rushed through narrow 
chasms ; but the crashing of thunder-riven rocks rose above the noise 
of the tempest. The wanderings of a bewildered traveller led by this 
precipice. This is the tale of that night. ''The blast roared at a dis- 
tance, and the storm was lulled. A long, loud, fearful cry burst on my 
ear. I lifted my eyes, and the lightning revealed a terrible sight. Hor- 
ror-stricken, I mufiied my face in my cloak, and rushed hurriedly over 
the slippery ground. Still I saw that terrible sight. He stood on the 
bare, black rock, gleaming in the storm-light like the spirit of destruc- 
tion. He knelt on one knee, with one foot resting on the edge of a 
frightful precipice. His head was thrown back in defiance ; his features 
were reddened and writhing; his hair streamed in the wind. One hand 
was stretched out as if to seize the flying lightning ; his other, uplifted, 
clutched a blazing dagger, pointed to his bared bosom. The lightning 
flashed fiercer; the thunder rolled deeper; the mountain shook; the rocks 
trembled ; a crash followed, and a loud shriek was mingled with the 
blast. I ventured to look again. A sea of flame rolled around the 
summit of a pine grove, standing tall on the steep; fiery fragments of 
shivered rocks darted like meteors through heaven; clouds of smoke 
curled along the brow of the precipice, like ocean's mist about the craggy 
cliff's, when first the sun looks forth from the east." 

The tale of the traveller is told. I knew that my friend had departed. 
Trembling, I hurried hither, and black and dismal was the scene. Thu- 
ron was prostrate in death. His high forehead was turned to heaven ; 
his hand, thrown over his head, had dropped a dagger, whose brightness 

33 



514 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

was covered with rust ; his locks were a little curled by the lightning ; 
but unmarred was his form by blood or by fire. Bright was his eye, 
and his cheek ruddy, as if nature had courted death by her loneliness. 
Those few stones hide the bones of the unhappy Thuron. 



MAJOR-GENERAL GREENE. 

The immortal meed be thine, 
That Freedom wreaths the patriot's brow around ! — Sotheby. 

In no respect did Washington display the soundness of his judgment 
to more advantage, than in the selection of those in whom he placed his 
confidence ; and the subject of this sketch, it is well known, was his 
favourite officer. In military genius, Greene had no superior in the 
army of the Revolution. His services were unequalled in importance by 
any but those of his chief; and if we properly consider the difficulties he 
had to encounter; his deficient education, and assiduous self-instruction; 
his unfailing fortitude under the most adverse circumstances — the firm- 
ness that never shrank, though the duty was severe ; the perseverance 
that never wavered, though fortune frowned and defeat for a moment 
pressed heavy on the heart of the patriot soldier ; we must give him a 
rank, for extent of capacity and strength of mind, with the most distin- 
guished names of European warfare. 

Nathaniel Greene was born in the town of Warwick, Rhode Island, 
His father was an anchor-smith, and a member of the society of Friends. 
As he intended his son for his own occupation, he gave him but a com- 
mon education, and of course inculcated upon the mind of the future gene- 
ral the pacific tenets of the disciples of Fox and Penn. Greene showed 
an early fondness for reading, and with the little funds he could com- 
mand, collected a library, not very extensive, but remarkably well 
selected; and it was observed, that among his books were several ou 
military history, and that to these he was particularly attached. In 
compliance with the wish of his father, Greene became an anchor-smith, 
and worked at the trade for some years. His energetic mind, and the 
attention he gave to the political discussions of the times, recommended 
him to the notice of his neighbours, and he was sent to the colonial legis- 
lature. Here he took a decided stand, and declared for a redress of 
grievances, or open resistance. The Friends were startled by the avowal 
of such principles in a member of their society, and waited upon him for 
the purpose of expostulation. As he continued to uphold the obnoxious 
doctrine of resistance in spite of their reproof, he was dismissed ; and he 
now prepared himself for the profession of arms. He was instrumental 
in forming a military association called the Kentish Guards, into which 
he entered as a private, and so continued, until after the affairs of Lex- 
ington and Concord. In May, 1775, Rhode Island raised three regi- 
ments of militia, and the command was conferred upon Greene, with the 
title of brigadier-general. On the 26th of April, 1776, he was ad- 



MAJOR-GENERAL GREENE. 515 

vanced by Congress to the rank of a major-general in the regular army. 
His history is now identified with that of the Revolution ; and, in such 
a sketch as this, we can scarcely glance at the varied, but, finally, most 
prosperous career of this indefatigable oSicer. He was with Washington 
in his retreat through New Jersey ; he was present at the capture of 
the Hessians in Trenton ; and his sword was drawn at Princeton, at 
Brandy wine, and at Germantown. His eulogy was pronounced by Corn- 
wallis — " Greene is as dangerous as Washington. He is vigilant, enter- 
prising, and full of resources. With but little hope of gaining any 
advantage over him, I never feel secure when encamped in his neigh- 
bourhood." 

On the second of March, 1778, Greene was appointed quarter-master- 
general. The zealous soldier accepted the appointment on condition that 
he should not forfeit his right to command in time of action. At the 
battle of Monmouth, he was intrusted with the lead of the right wing 
of the army, and he distinguished himself against the enemy in Rhode 
Island, when Sullivan was his commander. Desirous of devoting him- 
self exclusively to the department of the line, he tendered his resignation 
of his station in the staif, which was accepted, and the manner in which 
he had discharged its duties may be gathered from the remarks of one 
who strictly scrutinized the conduct of his ofiicers, and who was by no 
means profuse of compliment. ''You have rendered," said the com- 
mander-in-chief, " the path of duty in the quarter-master's department 
so broad and plain, that it will not be easy for your successor to mis- 
take it." 

The firmness with which General Greene discharged his painful duty 
as president of the tribunal that condemned the unhappy Andre, has 
been a subject of frequent comment. His opposition to an indulgence 
of the desire of the brave prisoner that he might die a military death 
was correct, and his reasoning is conclusive. " Andre is either a spy or 
an innocent man. If the latter, to execute him in any way will be 
murder. If the former, the mode of his death is prescribed by law, and 
you have no right to alter it." The good sense of Greene is conspicuous 
in the observations that follow. " Besides, if you shoot the prisoner 
instead of hanging him, you will excite suspicions which you will be 
unable to allay. Notwithstanding all your efibrts to the contrary, you 
will awaken public compassion, and the belief will become general, that 
in the case of Major Andre there were exculpatory circumstances en- 
titling him to lenity beyond what he received — perhaps entitling him to 
pardon." 

Appointed to the command of the army of the South, an immense 
responsibility devolved upon General Greene, and an extensive field was 
opened for the exercise of his talents, and those mental qualities of 
promptness, sagacity, and foresight, which assimilated and endeared him 
to the commander-in-chief beyond any of his brethren in arms. With 
an army weakened and dispirited, he had to cope with the ablest gene- 
rals in the service of Britain. Gates, brave and experienced, the hero 
of Saratoga, had failed in the campaign ; he superseded him, and now 
upon him, as the better officer, were the expecting eyes of the nation 



516 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

turned. There was much to raise the exulting whisper of that secret 
vanity, from which no breast is altogether exempt; and still more to 
cause the boldest to shudder, and the most sanguine to despond at the 
gloomy prospect. The southern operations of General GJ-reene form a bril- 
liant page in our revolutionary histoi-y. The battle of the Cowpensj the 
battle at Gruilford court-house ; the battle at Eutaw Springs ; the attack 
on St. John's Island ; the retreating and pursuing warfare of Greene, and 
the glorious consummation at Yorktown, to which his exertions mate- 
rially conduced, these show how comi^letely he fulfilled the highest hopes 
that were entertained of his skilfal management and successful perseve- 
rance. So far from triumphing over his less prudent and much-cen- 
sured predecessor, Greene, with a courteous liberality, honourable to his 
feelings as a soldier and a gentleman, ever appeared as the defender of 
the reputation of General Gates. He spoke of the unavoidable misfor- 
tunes of the campaign, and found an apology for the hazarded engage- 
ment and disgraceful defeat at Camden, in the state of the army, the 
disaffection of the country, and the peculiar situation of the American 
commander. 

The services of General Greene were appreciated by his country. To 
him the triumphal arch was raised, and wherever he approached, he was 
greeted with the sounds of applause and the voice of benediction. South 
Carolina presented him with an estate on the river Edisto ; Georgia with 
an estate on the river Savannah ; and North Carolina with twenty-five 
thousand acres of land, now included within the boundary of the State 
of Tennessee. After the peace, he retired to his native state, where he 
remained about two years, and then with his family set sail for Georgia. 
Here he took possession of his estate, and engaged in agriculture. But 
seven months had scarcely elapsed ere death summoned the warrior from 
his peaceful pursuits. Exposing himself imprudently during a day of 
extreme heat, he received a stroke of the sun ; a fever was the conse- 
quence, which, attacking a plethoric habit, baffled all medical efi'ort, and 
terminated his existence on the nineteenth of June, 1786; after an ill- 
ness of four days. 

Of General Greene's talents as an officer, mention has been made. 
Of the pure and patriotic motives by which he was actuated, let Wash- 
ington speak : " There is not an officer of the army, nor a man in Ame- 
rica, more sincerely attached to the interests of his country. Could he 
best promote those interests in the character of a corporal, he would 
exchange, as I firmly believe, without a murmur, the epaulet for the knot ; 
for although he is not without ambition, that ambition has not for its 
object the highest rank, so much as the greatest good." From an indus- 
trious application to books during the leisure hours of his younger days, 
Greene obtained a facility of expi'ession, and a flow of correct and appro- 
priate language. His letters and despatches are ably written, his descrip- 
tions simple and impressive, and his detail of an engagement lucid, unaf- 
fected, and minute, without prolixity. — To his virtues as a man, those 
who knew him well have borne testimony ; and they beamed forth on 
more than one public occasion. We have spoken of his deportment 
towards General Gates. With becoming compassion — the virtue so 



EALLEY AND SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 517 

ennobling to a soldier, but not always his characteristic — he did his utmost 
to allay the severities of civil war, and to prevent every thing that savoured 
of excess and outrage. By judicious argument, and kind, paternal per- 
suasion, he strove, and in a great degree successfully, to soften the ani- 
mosity of the Whigs toward those adherents of royalty whose weapons 
were broken, and who were now willing to submit to the existing govern- 
ment, and to return to their former employments. At a public meeting 
of some of the leading Whigs of the state of Rhode Island, he addressed 
them on the duty of clemency : he told them that under every form of 
government it had been found wise and politic to follow even the close 
of a rebellion by an act of general amnesty, from which none were 
excluded but the most flagrant offenders. He said they should not con- 
sider the Tories as rebels, but as deluded citizens, for whose defection 
many palliations were to be found ; and he firmly believed that most of 
them had been misled by honest prejudices. He pronounced needless 
severity, wanton cruelty ; denied the necessity of rigorous measures ; 
and urged that it would be an evidence of virtue in communities and 
individuals to express, by deeds of mercy and humanity, their gratitude 
for the signal favours which Providence had bestowed. Such sentiments 
require no comment. The malice of the charge, that he was concerned 
in the speculations of the contractor Banks, was fully developed by the 
investigation of Congress, and he stood without reproach. He is worthy 
of his unsullied fame; worthy of that niche in the temple of history 
which posterity has awarded him, as a man strong in intellect, resolute 
of purpose, amiable in private life, and truly devoted to the cause of 
liberty and his country. 



HALLEY AND SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 

Halley, the great mathematician, dabbled not a little in infidelity ; 
he was rather too fond of introducing this subject ; and once, when he 
had descanted somewhat freely on it, in the presence of his friend, Sir 
Isaac Newton, the latter cut him short with this observation : "I always 
attend to you, Dr. Halley, with the greatest deference, when you do us 
the honour to converse on astronomy or the mathematics, because these 
are subjects you have industriously investigated, and which you well 
understand; but religion is a subject on which I always hear you with 
pain, because it is one which you have not seriously examined, and there- 
fore do not comprehend ; you despise it because you have not studied it, 
and you will not study it because you despise it." 



Man has but to be ignorant, to be foolish, weak, and miserable. 
" The way not to be led into error," said the judicious Hooker, " is to 
be thoroughly instructed." To become better, a man must become 
wiser ; to be wiser, he must be more thoughtful, he must be trained to 
think rightly — freely. 
2T 



518 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



PORTRAIT OF BONAPARTE. 

The person of Bonaparte has served as a model for the most skilful 
painters and sculptors ; many able French artists have successfully de- 
lineated his features, and yet it may be said, that no perfectly faithful 
portrait of him exists. His finely shaped head, his superb forehead, his 
pale countenance, and his usual meditative look, have been transferred 
to the canvas ; but the versatility of his expression was beyond the 
reach of imitation. All the various workings of his mind were in- 
stantaneously depicted in his countenance ; and his glance changed from 
mild to severe, and from anger to good-humour, almost with the rapidity 
of lightning. It may truly be said, that he had a particular look for 
every thought that arose in his mind. Bonaparte had beautiful hands, 
and he was very proud of them ; while conversing he would often look 
at them with an air of self-complacency. He also fancied he had fine 
teeth, but his pretension to that advantage was not so well founded as 
his vanity on the score of his hands. When walking, either alone or in 
company with any one, in his apartments or in his gardens, he had the 
habit of stooping a little, and crossing his hands behind his back. He 
frequently gave an involuntary shrug of his right shoulder, which was 
accompanied by a movement of his mouth from left to right. This habit 
was always most remarkable when his mind was absorbed in the consi- 
deration of any profound subject. It was often while walking that he 
dictated to me his most important notes. He could endure great fatigue, 
not only on horseback, but on foot : he would sometimes walk for five 
or six hours in succession, without being aware of it. When walking 
with any person whom he treated with familiarity, he would link his 
arm into that of his companion, and lean on it. — Bourrienne's Memoirs. 



BEAUTIFUL EXTRACT. 



I SAW a mourner standing at eventide over the grave of one dearest 
to him on earth. The memory of joys that were past came crowding on 
his soul. "And is this," said he, "all that remains of one so loved 
and so lovely ? I call, but no voice answers. Oh ! my loved one will 
not hear ! death ! inexorable death ! what hast thou done ? Let me 
bow down and forget my sorrows in the slumber of the grave ?" 

While he thought thus in agony, the gentle form of Christianity 
came by. She bade him look upward, and to the eye of faith the 
heavens were disclosed. He heard the song and transport of the great 
multitude which no man can number around the throne. There were 
the spirits of the just made perfect — there, the spirit of her he mourned ! 
There happiness was pure, permanent, perfect. The mourner then wiped 
the tears from his eyes, took courage, and thanked God :— " All the days 
of my appointed time," said he, " will I wait till my change come ;" 
and he returned to the duties of life no longer sorrowing as those who 
have no hope. 



MOUNT CARMEL. 519 



MOUNT CARMEL. 

No part of the Promised Land creates a deeper interest in the traveller 
than the rich and extensive bosom of Mount Carmel ; while barrenness 
spreads on every side, and the curse of the withered soil is felt on hill, 
valley, and shore, this beautiful mountain seems to retain its ancient 
excellency of flowers, trees, and a perpetual verdure. The scenes in 
its interior are often bold and romantic in the highest degree ; deep and 
verdant precipices descending into lonely glens, through which a rivulet 
is seen dashing wildly — the shepherd and his flock on the long grassy 
slopes, that afford at present as rich pasture- ground as in the days when 
Nabal fed his numerous herds on Carmel. There is indeed a character 
peculiarly pastoral about the scenery; few gray and naked rocks, or 
sublime but useful cliffs, are here, as in the mountain of the Tempta- 
tion, or on Pisgah. And this fertility and vivid verdure on so sultry a 
soil is deeply welcome and refreshing ; more especially so the woods that 
wave over the summit and sides. It is beautiful to stand beneath their 
shelter on the brink of the mount, and look far on every side, where 
naught but a forsaken and shadowless land meets the eye. On the 
banks of the ancient river, on which the strength of the mighty was 
broken, and the power of Sisera swept away, no solitary tree spreads its 
shade ; the stream rolls between its green and naked shores ; these are 
so low that the river overflows to some extent on each side during the 
rainy season, and is so deep and rapid as not to be fordable. It was 
most probably during this season that the army of Sisera, in its flight, 
was in part destroyed by the waters, for in its usual narrow course the 
stream is not of sufficient width and power to be dangerous. Wishing 
to cross it one evening after sunset, and mistrusting the depth, we called 
to two young Arabs, who were seated on a green knoll on the opposite 
side, and asked if we could pass with safety. They replied doubtfully } 
and, on the promise of a reward, one of them stripped to the skin, and 
with a long pole in his hand, entered the river till it reached his chin 
and he felt his footing grow unsteady, when he was obliged to retreat. 
We turned disappointed from the spot, and the Arab youth, chilled and 
dripping, gained the bank again without his reward, which it was im- 
possible to pay. Just above, on the side of Carmel, is the spot pointed 
out by tradition as having been the scene of Elijah's slaying the prophets 
of Baal. There is much of the picturesque about the place ; the soil 
is strewed with several masses of gray stone, around which are many 
fine trees. It is a pleasing and lonely spot, such as the imagination 
would hardly have selected for so ruthless yet necessary a deed. But 
if tradition should err here, there can be no illusion with respect to the 
scene of the memorable descent of the fire from heaven. When " all 
Israel was gathered together unto Carmel," it was clearly on this side 
the mountain, where it descends gradually into the noble plain beneath. 
The spot was finely chosen by the prophet for the spectacle of his sacri- 
fice ; since the multitude of people, coming from the regions of Samaria, 
might stand with perfect convenience in the splendid and open area of 



520 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

Esdraelon, which is here terminated at the foot of Carmel. The de- 
clivity of the mountain, its brink dark with woods, and its sides covered 
with the richest pasture, looks over a vast extent of country on every 
side; from the hills of Samaria, Cana, and Grilboa, the miracle might 
have been beheld; and to the eager gaze of the Israelites in the plain, 
the prophets of the groves, their useless altars, and the avenging mes- 
sengers of God, were as distinct as if the scene had been acted at their 
feet. This, too, is the only face of the hill beneath which the Kishon 
flows. What a noble subject would this be for a painter ! the sun going 
down on the mountain declivities, while the eye of despair as well as 
faith was fixed in maddening suspense or triumph on the fading sky ; 
the hushed myriads gazed on each dazzling beam and caught every pass- 
ing sound as if the coming of the Grod was there ; the infidel king, also, 
with his chariots and armed men, waiting, moveless, from morn till eve. 
It was an impressive spot, from which we turned with regret, as the 
fading light warned us to depart, for the neighbourhood was not alto- 
gether safe. It is one of the unhappy features of this land that the 
richest feasts of the memory and fancy are often followed by the pressure 
of real evils. It was in vain to think of regaining our quarters on the 
seashore that night ; we were at too great a distance ; and we thought 
with regret of our comfortable quarters in the home of the Syrian, when 
we entered and looked around on the squalid hut and its lawless inmates 
where we were doomed to repose till morn. — Game's Travels. 



ACTIVE BENEVOLENCE. 

No man existing, be his state what it may, is exempted from the duty 
of inquiring what good he can do to others. That man must have seen 
little of mankind who is ignorant of human misery ; yet such know- 
ledge is not to be acquired by those who converse merely with persons 
of their own rank ; they must enter into the cottages and garrets of the 
poor ; they must see them naked, hungry, and thirsty, exposed to the 
inclemencies of the weather, to the sudden attacks or slow wastings of 
disease ; they must see the effects of their unruly passions and their 
grovelling vices ; they must be acquainted with all the consequences of 
ignorance and poverty. Evils like these must be known before they 
can be remedied ; yet the generality of the upper ranks know little what 
their inferiors suffer. 



Piety. — Piety communicates a divine lustre to the female mind ; wit 
and beauty, like the flower of the field, may flourish and charm for a 
season ; but let it be remembered, that like the fragrant blossoms that 
bloom in the air, these gifts are fading : age will nip the bloom of beauty ; 
sickness and sorrow will stop the current of wit and humour ; but in 
that gloomy time appointed for all, piety will support the drooping soul, 
like the refreshing dew upon the parched earth. 



FULTON AND THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 521 



FULTON AND THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 

''When/' said Mr. Fultou, ''I was building my first steamboat at 
New York, the project was viewed by the public either with indifference 
or contempt, as a visionary scheme. My friends, indeed, were civil, but 
they were shy. They listened with patience to my explanations, but 
with a settled cast of incredulity on their countenances. I felt the full 
force of the lamentation of the poet, 

Truths would you teach, to save a sinting land, 
AU fear, none aid you, and few understand. 

As I had occasion to pass daily to and from the building-yard, while my 
boat was in progress, I have often loitered unknown near the idle groups 
of strangers, gathering in little circles, and heard various inquiries as to 
the object of this new vehicle. The language was uniformly that of 
scorn, or sneer, or ridicule. The loud laugh often rose at my expense j 
the dry jest; the wise calculation of the Fulton folly. Never did a 
single encouraging remark, a bright hope or a warm wish cross my 
path. Silence itself was but politeness veiling its doubts, or hiding its 
reproaches. At length the day arrived when the experiment was to be 
put into operation. To me it was a most trying and interesting occa- 
sion. I invited many friends to go on board to witness the first success- 
ful trip. Many of them did me the favour to attend, as a matter of 
personal respect ; but it was manifest, that they did it with reluctance, 
fearing to be the partners of my mortification, and not of my triumph. 
I was well aware, that in my case there were many reasons to doubt of 
my own success. The machinery was new and ill-made ; many parts 
of it were constructed by mechanics unaccustomed to such work; and 
unexpected difiiculties might reasonably be presumed to present them- 
selves from other causes. The moment arrived in which the word was 
to be given for the vessel to move. My friends were in groups on the 
deck. There was anxiety, mixed with fear, among them. They were 
silent, and sad, and weary. I read in their looks nothing but disaster, 
and almost repented of my efforts. The signal was given, the boat 
moved a small distance and stopped, and became immovable. To the 
silence of the preceding moment, now succeeded murmurs of discontent, 
and agitations, and whispers, and shrugs. I could hear distinctly re- 
peated, ' I told you it would be so — it is a foolish scheme — I wish we 
were well out of it.' I elevated myself upon a platform, and addressed 
the assembly. I stated that I knew not what was the matter ; but if 
they would be quiet, and indulge me for half an hour, I would either 
go on, or abandon the voyage for that time. This short respite was 
conceded without objection. I went below, examined the machinery, 
and discovered that the cause was a slight misadjustment of some of the 
work. In a short period it was obviated. The boat was put again in 
motion. She continued to move on. All were still incredulous. None 
seemed willing to trust the evidence of their own senses. ^Ye left the 
fair city of New York ; we passed through the romantic and ever-varying 
2 t2 



522 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

scenery of the Highlands ; we descried the clustering houses of Albany ; 
we reached its shores ; and then, even then, when all seemed achieved, 
I was the victim of disappointment. Imagination superseded the influ- 
ence of fact. It was then doubted if it could be done again, it was 
doubted if it could be made of any great value." 

Such was the history of the first experiment, as it fell, not in the very 
language which I have used, but in its substance, from the lips of the 
inventor. He did not live indeed to enjoy the full glory of his invention. 
It is mournful to say, that attempts were made to rob him in the first 
place of the merits of his invention, and nest of its fruits. He fell a 
victim to his efforts to sustain his title to both. When already his inven- 
tion had covered the waters of the Hudson, he seemed little satisfied 
with the results, and looked forward to far more extensive operations. 
" My ultimate triumph," he used to say, " will be on the Mississippi. I 
know indeed that even now it is deemed impossible, by many, that the 
difficulties of its navigation can be overcome. But I am confident of 
success. I may not live to see it ; but the Mississippi will yet be cover- 
ed by steamboats ; and thus an entire change be wrought in the course 
of the internal navigation and commerce of our country." — North 
American Review. 



FEMALE INFLUENCE. 

The following striking and eloquent remarks are from " Suggestions 
on Education," by Catharine E. Beecher: — 

Woman has been but little aware of the high incitements that should 
stimulate to the cultivation of her noblest powers. The world is no 
longer to be governed by p%s{ca^ force, but by the influence which mind 
exerts over mind. How are the great springs of action in the political 
world put in motion ? Often by the secret workings of a single mind, 
that in retirement plans its schemes, and comes forth to execute them 
only by presenting motives of prejudice, passion, self-interest, or pride, 
to operate on other minds. 

Now, the world is chiefly governed by motives that men are ashamed 
to oion. When do we find mankind acknowledging that their efi"orts in 
political life are the ofispring of pride and the desire of self-aggrandize- 
ment, and yet who hesitates to believe that this is true ? 

But there is a class of motives that men are not only willing but 
proud to own. Man does not willingly yield to force ; he is ashamed to 
own he can yield to fear; he will not acknowledge his motives of pride, 
prejudice, or passion. But none are unwilling to own they can be 
governed by reason, even the worst will boast of being regulated by con- 
scieiice, and where is the person who is ashamed to own the influence of 
the kind and generous emotions of the heart ? Here then is the only 
lawful field for the ambition of our sex. Woman in all her relations is 
bound to '■'■honour and obey" those on whom she depends for protection 
and support, nor does the truly feminine mind desire to exceed this limi- 
tation of Heaven. But where the dictates of authority may ever control, 



ARMY SCENES. 523 

the voice of reason and aiFection may ever convince and persuade ; and 
while others govern by motives that mankind are ashamed to own, the 
dominion of woman may be based on influence that the heart is proud 
to acknowledge. 

And if it is indeed the truth that reason and conscience guide to the 
only path of happiness, and if affection will gain a hold on these powerful 
principles which can be attained in no other way, what high and holy 
motives are presented to woman for cultivating her highest powers ! The 
development of the responding fascinations of a purified imagination, 
the charms of a cultivated taste, the quick perceptions of an active mind, 
the power of exhibiting truth and reason by perspicuous and animated 
conversation and writing, all these can be employed by woman as much 
as by man. And with these attainable faculties for gaining influence, 
woman has already received from the hand of her Maker those warm 
affections and quick susceptibilities, which can most surely gain the 
empire of the heart. 

Woman has never waked to her highest destinies and holiest hopes. 
She has yet to learn the purifying and blessed influence she may gain 
and maintain over the intellect and affections of the human mind. 
Though she may not teach from the portico nor thunder from the forum, 
in her secret retirements she may form and send forth the sages that 
shall govern and renovate the world. Though she may not gird herself 
for bloody conflict, nor sound the trumpet of war, she may enwrap 
herself in the panoply of heaven, and send the thrill of benevolence 
through a thousand youthful hearts. Though she may not enter the list 
in legal collision, nor sharpen her intellect amid the passions and conflicts 
of men, she may teach the law of kindness, and hush up the discords 
and conflicts of life. Though she may not be clothed as the ambassador 
of Heaven, nor minister at the altar of Grod, as a secret angel of mercy 
she may teach his will, and cause to ascend the humble but most accepted 
sacrifice. 



ARMY SCENES. 

It is with a strange and thrilling sensation — when an enemy is imme- 
diately in front — that the order for an advance before daybreak is heard 
in camp, accompanied, as it always is, with the ominous serving out of 
three days' provisions, and sixty rounds of ball-cartridge to each man ; 
with the bustle of packing up the heavy baggage — the noise and hubbub 
in the camp— the deep and hollow rolls of the great-guns, dragging up 
from the rear — and the congregating together of the ofiicers in their 
tents, preparing for the movement ; some speculating upon the results 
of the coming battle; some smoking cigars and jesting with death; some 
musing upon absent friends, ruminating on the past, or peering into the 
future ; and, perchance, a few — a very few thinking beings, pondering 
on the final destiny of man, the mystery of death, and the searcbless 
secret beyond the grave. — JoJm Malcom. 



524 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE ACROPOLIS. 

The Acropolis of Athens is a hill two hundred and fifty feet high, 
situated near the centre of the ancient city. It was strongly fortified 
and ornamented with temples, the chief of which was the splendid temple 
of Minerva, the glory of Grecian art. The Persians, under Xerxes, took 
the citadel, put the garrison to the sword, and set fire to the fortress and 
the temple of Minerva. The temple was rebuilt by Pericles with great 
additional splendour. Within was the statue to Minerva by Phidias, the 
masterpiece of the art of statuary. It was of ivory, thirty-nine feet in 
height, and covered with pure gold to the value of $530,000. In the 
year 1687, the Venetians attempted to make themselves masters of 
Athens; in the siege, the Turks having converted the temple of Mi- 
nerva into a powder magazine, a bomb fell into it, and blew up the 
whole roof of that famous edifice. The Turks afterwards converted the 
inside into a mosque. This edifice, mutilated as it is, retains still an air 
of inexpressible grandeur, and excites the admiration of every beholder. 
"For these forty years," said the French Consul to Poqueville, "do I 
behold this matchless structure, and every day do I discover new beauties 
in it." The Turks fortified the Acropolis, and built a large irregular wall 
around it. In the year 1821, soon after the commencement of the revo- 
lution in Grreece, this fortress was unsuccessfully besieged by the Greeks. 
The Turks, who had with them about fifty of the principal Greeks, daily 
cut off the heads of several, and rolled them down the walls of the citadel. 
The next year it surrendered to Ulysses. 



THE FLOWER FORGET-ME-NOT. 

Mills, in his work upon chivalry, mentions, that the beautiful little 
flower called forget-me-not was known in England as early as the time 
of Edward IV. ; and, in a note, he gives the following pretty incident iu 
explanation of the name : " Two lovers were loitering on the margin of 
a lake, on a fine summer's evening, when the lady discovered some 
flowers of the 3Ii/osotis growing on the water, close to the bank of an 
island, at some distance from the shore. She expressed a desire to pos- 
sess them, when her knight, in the true spirit of chivalry, plunged into 
the water, and swimming to the spot, cropped the wished-for plant ; but 
his strength was unable to fulfil the object of his achievement, and feel- 
ing that he could not regain the shore, although very near it, he threw 
the flowers upon the bank, and casting a last affectionate look upon his 
lady-love, he said Forget me not, and was buried in the water." 



During a great storm on the Pacific Ocean a vessel was once wrecked, 
and a Quaker, tossing to and fro on a plank, exclaimed, over the crest of 
a wave, to another who was drifting by on a barrel, " Friend, dost thou 
call this Pacific?" 



THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH. — VERSES. 



525 



THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH. 



BY H. W. LONGFELLOW. 



Under a spreading chestnut-tree, 

The village smithy stands; 
The smith, a mighty man is he. 

With large and sinewy hands ; 
And the muscles of his brawny arms 

Are strong as iron bands. 

His hair is crisp, and black, and long ; 

His face is like the tan ; 
His brow is wet with honest sweat ; 

He earns whate'er he can. 
And locks the whole world in the face. 

For he owes not any man. 

Week in, week out, from morn till night, 
You can hear his bellows blow ; 

You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, 
With measured beat and slow. 

Like a sexton ringing the village bell 
When the evening sun is low. 

And children coming home from school 

Look in at the open door; 
They love to see the flaming forge. 

And hear the bellows roar. 
And catch the burning sparks that fly 

Like chaff from a threshing-floor. 



He goes on Sunday to the church, 

And sits among his boys ; 
He hears tlie parson pray and preach. 

He hears his daughter's voice. 
Singing in the village choir. 

And it makes his heart rejoice. 

It sounds to him like her mother's voice. 

Singing in Paradise ! 
He needs must think of her once more, 

How in the grave she lies ; 
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes 

A tear out of his eyes. 

Toiling — rejoicing — Sorrowing — 
Onward through life he goes : 

Each morning sees some task begin. 
Each evening sees it close ; 

Something attempted — something done. 
Has earn'd a night's repose. 

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend. 
For the lesson thou hast taught ! 

Thus at the flaming forge of Life 
Our fortunes miist be wrought. 

Thus on its sounding anvil shaped 
Each burning deed and tliought. 



EE KIND TO EACH OTHER. 



Be kind to each other, through weal and through 

wo. 
For there's many a sorrow for hearts here below; 
The storms of this life beat around us in vain. 
If we're kind to each other, in pleasure and pain. 

Be kind to each other when life is all light. 
When music and mirth please the ear of the night; 
When pleasure spreads roses in grandeur's gay hall. 
Be kind to each other and fear not at all. 

Be kind to each other in sorrow and grief, 
'Tis sympathy only can give thee relief; 



Dividing our sorrow but lessens our pain, 
Be kind to each other— afliiction is vain. 

Be kind to each other when sichness has come. 
Let nothing but smiles ever visit your home ; 
Encourage and succour, and soothe the distress'd. 
Be kind to each other, and still thou art bless'd. 

Be kind to each other through life to its close. 
And when thou art freed from its wishes and woes ; 
When freed from life's tears, from its sorrow and 

sighs. 
Be kind to each other, and meet in the skies. 



VERSES BY ROBERT BURNS, 

WHEN ABOUT TO LEAVE SCOTLAND. 



O'ER the mist-shrouded cliffs of the lone mountain 
straj'ing. 

Where the wild winds of winter incessantly rave. 
What woes wring my heart while intensely surveying 

The storm's gloomy path on the breast of the wave ! 

Ye foam-crested billows, allow me to wail. 
Ere you toss me afar from my loved native shore. 

Where the flower vrhich bloom'd sweetest in Coila's 
green vale. 
The pride of my bosom, my Mary's no more. 



No more by the banks of the streamlet we '11 wander. 

And smile at the moon's rimpled face in the wave ; 

No more shall my arms cling with fondness around 

her. 

For the dew-drops of morning fall cold on her 

grave. 

No more shall the soft thrill of love warm my breast ; 

I haste M'ith the storm to a far-distant shore. 
Where, unknown, unlamented, my ashes shall rest. 

And joy shall revisit my bosom no more. 



526 FIBLDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



FRIENDS OF MY YOUTH. 

I returned to my native village, and said, "Friends of my youth — where are they ?" 
And echo answered, "AVhere are they?" 

Language could not more touchingly describe the situation of the 
traveller, who, after years of absence, revisits the scenes of his youth, 
and searches in vain for the companions of his early pleasures. Child- 
hood and youth are the genial seasons for local as well as personal at- 
tachment. In maturer years the mind is occupied by the hurry of busi- 
ness or the abstraction of studies, and those little domestic and neigh- 
bourhood incidents, which engage the notice of boyish curiosity, and 
which entwine themselves with such strong and numerous chords round 
the young affections, pass unregarded by the less inquisitive observation 
and the less acute sensibility of age. The personal friendships and in- 
timacies of age are, for the most part, nothing but the formal and calcu- 
lating civilities of interest — as frail and unsubstantial as their perishable 
foundation ! The local predilections and partialities contracted late in 
life spring from no romance of affection — from no poetry of heart — 
no train of tender associations — but from some ignoble idea of present 
fitness and convenience ! But the affections of childhood are the pure 
and ingenuous offerings of unsophisticated nature ! Does the tired pil- 
grim return from the " travel of the world" to his native village ? It 
is the enthusiasm of early love, clinging with unweaned and unabated 
attachment to those scenes which witnessed the day-dreams of youthful 
expectation ! Does he ask for the " friends of his youth T' They were 
the only friends he has found in his pilgrimage. The companions of 
yesterday are easily forgotten ! The events of the last year are already 
obliterated from our memory ! But no time, no change can obscure the 
vivid images of our young days, or efface the deep impression of 
primeval joys. When we have been for years tossed on the ocean of 
life, and return once more to seek tranquillity in the haven of home, 
how intolerable must be the anguish of our disappointment, when we 
find that home — the residence of our happiest days, and the theatre of 
our most innocent enjoyments — endeared to us by such strong natural 
affinities, and by so many interesting moral ties, lone and deserted ! 
The recollection of the happy faces and the affectionate hearts which we 
left behind us, when we first turned our vagrant feet from the paternal 
threshold; the image of those dear associates, who partook of our 
reckless pleasures, and sustained with us the perils of infant helpless- 
ness ; the visible proof thus presented of the desolation of time and of 
the vanity of human happiness; " the memory of joys that are gone;" 
and the whole tide of past events, with all their painful associations, 
sweep over the soul and leave it a dreary melancholy waste ! " Friends 
of my youth ; where are they ?" No voice of affection greets our re- 
turn ! no smile of enraptured joy welcomes us home ! no ear of interest 
listens while we recount the story of our perilous voyage ! All is silent 
and desolate ? Echo answers m doleful accents, " Where are they 1" 



t 

ABSENT-MINDED PHILOSOPHER. 527 



HOW TO MAKE A GOOD WIFE UNHAPPY. 

See her as seldom as possible. If she is warm-hearted and cheerful 
in temper ; and if, after days' or weeks' absence, she meets you with a 
smiling face and in an affectionate manner, be sure to look coldly upon 
her, and answer her with dry monosyllables. If she force back her 
tears, and is resolved to look cheerful, sit down and gape in her presence 
till she is fully convinced of your indifference. Never agree with her 
in opinion, or consult her in any of your affairs, for that would give her 
an idea of consequence. Never think you have any thing to do to make 
her happy ; but that all happiness is to flow from gratifying your ca- 
prices; and when she has done all a woman can do, be sure you do not 
appear gratified. Never take an interest in any of her pursuits, and if 
she ask your advice, make her feel that she is troublesome and imperti- 
nent. If she attempts to rally you good-humouredly on any one of your 
peculiarities, never join in the laugh, but frown her into silence. If 
she has faults, (which, without doubt, she will have, and perhaps may 
be ignorant of,) never attempt with kindness to correct them ; but con- 
tinually obtrude upon her ears, " What a good wife Mr. Smith has." 
" How happy friend Smith is with his wife." " That any man would 
be happy with such a wife." In company never seem to know you have 
a wife, treat all her remarks with indifference, and be very affable and 
complaisant to every other lady. If you have married a woman of 
principle, and will follow these directions, you may be certain of an 
obedient and a — heart-broken wife. 



ABSENT-MINDED PHILOSOPHER. 

Dr. Robert Hamilton, the author of the celebrated " Essay on the 
National Debt," was esteemed a profound and clear-headed philosopher. 
In the " New Monthly Magazine," after speaking of the profound science, 
beautiful arrangement, and clear expression manifest in his writings, 
the writer goes on to say : " Yet in public the man was a shadow : 
pulled off his hat to his own wife in the streets, and apologized for not 
having the pleasure of her acquaintance ; went to his classes in the col- 
lege in the dark mornings with one of her white stockings on one leg, 
and one of his own black ones on the other ; often spent the whole time 
of the meeting in moving from the table the hats of the students, which 
they as constantly returned ; sometimes invited them to call on him, and 
then fined them for coming to insult hira. He would run against a cow 
in the road, turn round, beg her pardon, ' Madam,' and hope she was not 
hurt. At other times he would run against posts, and chide them for 
not getting out of his way ; and yet his conversation at the same time, 
if anybody happened to be with him, was perfect logic and perfect 
music." 



528 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



KECOLLECTIONS OF INFANCY. 

The following extracts are copied from a volume, published in 1810, 
entitled " The Savage, hy PiomingOy a headman and warrior of the 
Muscogidgee Nation," a work of great merit, said to have been written 
by a citizen of Tennessee : — 

The existence of things is not strange ; but the power of perceiving 
this existence is, beyond comprehension, wonderful. Where shall we 
look for the origin of mind ? Whence sprang the young idea ? Was 
it produced by the immediate agency of the Almighty One ? or is it 
a necessary emanation from the great fountain of nature, the soul of the 
universe ? Our first thought has perished for ever; no exertion of ours 
can bring it up from the gulf of oblivion ; yet we may awaken the 
recollection of times long past ; we may bid the scenes of childhood pass 
again before us, and remember with pleasure the early excursions of the 
unfledged mind. 

When we first become conscious of our own existence, every thing is 
new — every thing delightful. We inquire not whence we came ; we 
rejoice because we are. The brisk circulation of the blood and the 
kindly flow of the animal spirits impel us to action. We find it impos- 
sible to control the tumultuous emotions of exultation and joy. We 
have no power to remain in one place or continue silent : we run, we 
scream, we leap " like roes or young harts on the mountains of spices." 
But this blissful period passes away as a dream, and visits us no more. 
Our prospects become suddenly darkened : some faint idea of evil, of 
sorrow, and of death, passes through the mind. 

The first thought concerning the final period of our joys and of our 
existence is inexpressibly distressing. " Must I die also V said I to the 
sage Oconi-mico — " must I die as well as Quibo ?" " Thou must also 
die," answered Oconi-mico. " Shall I no more walk ? Shall I no more 
climb up the mountain of bufl"aloes ? Shall I no more shake the fruit 
from the beautiful pawpaw tree, or swim in the waters of Tuckabatchee ? 
Shall I no more, dear Oconi-mico, shall I no more see the sun rise among 
the trees of the forest V " My dear child," said Oconi-mico, " behold 
the stalks of maize ; do they flourish longer than one season ? Observe 
the trees of the forest ; they grow old and become rotten : must a man 
live for ever ? Thou must become old ; thy hands must tremble, thine 
eyes become dim, and death put a period to thy existence." " What is 
death?" " Death is the end of life. Death is — nothing." " I cannot 
understand that : come let us look at my brother Quibo. Is he asleep ? 
let us awake him. Plis face is cold; his eyes are closed; his limbs are 
stiff : he is dead. If I touch him, he cannot feel me ; if I cry, he cannot 
hear me ; should I pull open his eyes, he would not see me ; he is dead. 
Why did' he lie down on bis bed and die ? Why did he fall asleep and 
die ? I will run wild oo the hills. I will never lie down to sleep any 
more. I will not die." 



RECOLLECTIONS OF INFANCY. , 529 

^' My dear boy, look at Quibo : be bas feet, but be cannot walk ; be 
bas bands, but be cannot bend bis bow or take an arrow from bis quiver; 
be bas eyes, but be cannot see tbe sun rise among tbe trees of tbe forest : 
tbe life — tbe spirit — tbe tbougbt of Quibo bas gone away to tbe land 
of souls." Sudden as a flasb of ligbtning from a summer cloud sprang 
up a new and delightful idea : Quibo is not all dead ; bis thought is 
gone to another country. "Where is tbe land of souls?" Oconi-mico 
took me by tbe band, and led me to tbe door of our but. " Raise your 
eyes, my son, and observe those red clouds in tbe heavens." " I observe 
them." " Do you see those blue mountains, whose towering summits 
are mixed with the descending clouds ?" " I see them." 

" Beyond these mountains there is a wide river ; beyond that river 
there is a great country ; on the other side of that country there is a 
world of water; in that water there are a thousand islands: the sun is 
gone down among them. These islands are full of fruit trees, and 
streams of water. A thousand buffaloes and ten thousand deer graze on 
the bills or ruminate in the valleys." '■'■ When I die, shall I become an 
inhabitant of those islands?" " Love your friends; become a great war- 
rior; and when you die, the good Spirit will convey you to the land of 
souls, where Quibo is." " Who is the good Spirit ? Where is be ?" 
'■'■ He is above the stars; be sends down the rain, the hail, and tbe snow; 
and he passes by in the wild tornado." "Bad children, like the son of 
Ottoma, go down into the earth, to a dark place, where dwell the wicked 
spirits. My child, your mind is fatigued as well as your body. You 
must gO' to rest. To-morrow you shall see Quibo." 

He took me in his arms and bore me to my couch ; he wiped away 
tbe tears from my cheeks with the back of his hand, adding, '* Rest in 
peace; tbe good Being will send down his angels to watch ovei' your 
slumbers." I slept ; and sweet was my repose. What can soothe and 
calm tbe mind like the protection of a great and benevolent being ? The 
child may repose confidence in the arm of its father; but to whom 
shall the father look up for support ? He is conscious of his own weak- 
ness, and feels bis dependence on every thing that surrounds him. He 
cannot subject nature to his empire, nor drive tbe planets from their 
orbits. Must he submit to the operation of causes and effects ? Must 
be die and be forgotten for ever ? Or is there any truth in tbe consola- 
tory invitation : "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." Christians ! your religion sounds sweetly in 
the ears of a weak and erring creature like man. It speaks to tbe heart, 
affords a refuge to the miserable, and provides a remedy for every evil : 
but I cannot divest myself of my original opinions. How indelible are 
the impressions we receive in childhood ! Fifty summers have browned 
my visage, and fifty winters have furrowed my cheeks ; yet still the 
maxims of Oconi-mico are deeply engraven on the tablets of my mind. 
The sun of science has striven in vain to dissipate the darkness of my 
superstition; still I see my God in tbe black cloud, and listen to "the 
voice of bis excellency" in the thunder; still be reigns in the tempest, 
and passes by in the tornado. 

Navigators inform me that there is no heaven for Indians in the south- 
2 U 34 



530 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

em seas ; yet my fancy can people still a thousand islands with the 
brave spirits of my forefathers. Still I see their shadowy forms chase 
the fleeting deer over visionary hills, and I sigh for their company and 
their joys. 



THE HILL OF LIFE. 

Armine became acquainted with his own existence in the valley of 
Childhood. His couch was composed of roses, and canopied over by 
the boughs of the orange and the myrtle. Bubbling springs were seen 
among the flowers, and the melody of birds was heard amid the branches. 
The Hill of Life appeared before him, and he set his face toward the 
summit of the mountain. The ascent is known by the name of Youth : 
it was easy and delightful. A female form of the most angelic appearance 
was his constant companion : her name was Hope. She strewed his 
path with flowers ; and her presence shed abroad the sunshine of cheer- 
fulness and joy. She led him forward by the hand ; and distant objects, 
when pointed out by her finger, assumed a supernatural and celestial 
brilliancy. When he lay down to repose, poppies were strewed on his 
pillow ; and when he awoke, his heavenly companion entranced his eyes 
with her magical mirror of ravishing delights. Sometimes he turned 
aside into the gardens of pleasure, and bathed in the rivers of sensual 
delight ; but when he heard at a distance the loud but mellow voice of 
the trumpet of Fame, which sounded on the top of the mountain, he 
broke loose from the allurements of pleasure, determined to acquire 
more substantial bliss by heroic exertions. 

When he had gained the last stages of the ascent, he was met by a 
restless being, of a dark and forbidding countenance : her name was Care. 
She pressed him into her company, and attempted to engross his atten- 
tion. But her familiar approaches were forbidden by Hope; and she 
contented herself with flitting about in his view at a distance. 

The summit of the mountain is an elevated plain, known by the name 
of Manhood. It commands an extensive prospect on every side ; but 
these views are not all equally delightful. When you stand on the 
mountain and cast your eyes backward to the valley of Childhood, the 
mind is overpowered by conflicting emotions. You review with delight 
the wanderings of infancy in the valley of roses; but this enjoyment is 
mixed with an inexpressible sentiment of sorrow and regret : the thought 
of joys never to be repeated, and of pleasures for ever gone. 

The ascent of Youth is viewed with still less complacency. The 
aberrations in this part of the journey give to the prospect a bitterness 
and gloom that cloud the enjoyment. "Sweet humble vale!" said 
Armine, looking through the long vista of Youth, to the commencement 
of his journey, "sweet humble vale ! your delights are for ever vanish- 
ed ! your pleasures can never return !" 

Having thus said, he turned himself around to take a view of the ele- 
vated plain on which he stood. The face of the country was various : 



THE HILL OF LIFE. 531 

some parts were covered with thistles and thorns; and others were 
crowned with proud forests of oak, and groves of towering poplars. In 
some parts were to be seen "cloud-capt towers and gorgeous palaces;" 
and in others, the sordid and miserable '4iuts of cheerless poverty." 
Some of the inhabitants build houses of marble, as though their resi- 
dence in the place were never to have an end; while multitudes are 
crowded in cottages of clay. Dark clouds hang continually over the 
mountain : some contemplate their appearance with calmness, but others 
view them with horror and dismay. 

A philosopher who sat, with the utmost composure, on the point of a 
rock and viewed the shifting of the clouds through a perspective, beck- 
oned Armine to approach. He obeyed. " I perceive," said the phi- 
losopher, " by your countenance, that you have lately gained the sum- 
mit of the mountain." Armine assented, " Well," continued the sage, 
" you will remain here a while ; I have, for my part, been many years a 
resident on this plain, and must speedily descend on the other side of 
the hill. I observed you just now looking back on the valley of Child- 
hood; have you any objection to take a view of the opposite descent?" 
Armine was silent. The philosopher took him by the hand, and led him 
to the brow of the hill. ''The declivity," said he, "as you may perceive, 
is much greater on this side than on the other : it is called the Decline 
of Life. It has but a dreary appearance. The descent is rapid into the 
valley of Old Age : and in that valley rolls the black, sluggish, and 
bottomless Eiver of Death." Having thus spoken, he sighed, and im- 
mediately began to descend. Armine called after him with a loud voice, 
saying, " Is the river without a shore ? Are there no green fields on the 
other side, where a weary traveller may find lasting repose ?" The phi- 
losopher turned round, and looked upon Armine. There was an expres- 
sion of sadness upon his countenance. "No traveller has returned," 
said he, " to give us any intelligence. There is, without doubt, a country 
on the other side of the water : I have had a glimpse of it myself; but 
those who are swallowed up by the Eiver of Death are, in all proba- 
bility, carried by the rapidity of the current into the Dead Sea of eternal 
oblivion." Having thus said, he pursued his way down the mountain. 
Armine observed him for some time in his descent; and took notice 
that, having proceeded a little way, he found a green -place on the side 
of the hill where there was a spring of water. Having refreshed him- 
self, he sat down to rest ; and immediately began to examine the nature 
of the grass, which was the production of so sterile a soil. He continued 
this employment for some time, and then took out his pocket-perspective, 
and observed the movement of the clouds with as much composure as 
he had formerly done on the summit of the mountain. "Wonderful 
elasticity of the human mind !" exclaimed Armine, as he turned round 
from the contemplation of the Decline of Life, " wonderful elasticity 
of the human mind, which causes it to yield to the pressure of circum- 
stances ! — which enables it to support with tranquillity the greatest pos- 
sible misfortunes !" 

Care now became the constant companion of Armine, though he was 
still accompanied by Hope. Hope had lost a great part of her magical 



532 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

power, but still was able to soften the influence of Care, and calm the 
occasional perturbations of bis mind. He adopted various schemes for 
passing the time of his continuance on the mount; but the issue of every 
one was the same — disappointment. Sometimes he joined the votaries 
of pleasure, and sometimes the lovers of wisdom. Pleasure ended in 
smoke ; and knowledge was the parent of despair. Sometimes he em- 
ployed himself in gathering together the glittering stones that may be 
found on the summit of the mountain ; but the exertion necessary in 
this contemptible pursuit was painful in the extreme. He then endea- 
voured to derive amusement from dispersing abroad what he had col- 
lected together j and the issue of the whole was " vanity and vexation 
of spirit." 

The Temple of Fame stood on a rugged promontory of the mountain, 
which was suspended over the black and putrid waters of Infamy. The 
building was magnificent beyond description : its summit was hid in the 
clouds. The voice of the goddess was heard from the temple, inviting 
the appi'oaches of all; but the attempt to obey the invitation was attended 
with danger. Every one was desirous to enter, in order to leave some 
memorial of having performed the journey of life ; but few, very few, 
were found able to surmount the obstacles which impeded the entrance. 
The daring adventurer, whose heart beat high with the love of glory, 
pressed forward through dangers of every description. Frightful rocks 
and yawning caverns, giants of tremendous dimensions and spectres of 
terrific forms, opposed his progress. Envy, Malice, Hatred, Anger, Slan- 
der, Revenge, and a thousand others, armed with "firebrands, arrows, 
and death," stood in array against him. The hero who broke through 
their ranks and entered the temple covered with blood was received with 
shouts of joy and the sound of the trumpet. 

Armine essayed to enter ; but Poverty, a gaunt and haggard monster, 
effectually baffled every attempt, and drove him away from the precincts 
of the building. Here he was seized by Disease, who hurried him away 
to the descent of the mountain. 

As he passed down the Decline of Life, every thing wore a gloom of 
despondence. Dark clouds hung over his head ; and nothing was heard 
but the screaming of the raven from the " lightning-blasted oak," and 
the hooting of the owl from the mouldering turret. He entered the 
valley of Old Age. The air became dark. The funereal cypress over- 
shadowed his path. 

Weary and dejected, he tottered along, until, ere he was aware, he 
stood on the banks of the river. A thick fog, an everlasting cloud, 
rested on the face of the waters. Nothing was to be seen. Nothing was 
to be heard. It was the reign of Darkness, Silence, Inanity, Death. 
While he yet lingered, he received a last visit from the companion of 
his youth. Hope appeared, arrayed in a robe of resplendent whiteness. 
She directed her hand toward the opposite side of the river. The clouds 
broke away for a moment. He had, or fancied he had, a glimpse of a 
brighter region. Time hurried him into the stream ; and he was heard 
of no more. 



THE OCEAN. 533 



THE OCEAN. 

The ocean surrounds the earth on all sides, and penetrates into the 
interior parts of different countries, sometimes by large openings, and 
frequently by small straits. Could the eye take in this immense sheet 
of waters at one view, it would appear the most august object under the 
whole heavens. It occupies a space on the surface of the globe at least 
three times greater than that which is occupied by the land ; compre- 
hending an extent of one hundred and forty-eight millions of square 
miles. Though the ocean, strictly speaking, is but one immense body 
of waters, extending in different directions, yet different names have 
been appropriated to different portions of its surface. That portion of 
its waters which rolls between the western coast of America and the 
eastern shores of Asia, is called the Pacific Ocean ; and that portion which 
separates Europe and Africa from America, the Atlantic Ocean. Other 
portions are termed the Northern, Southern, and Indian Oceans. When 
its waters penetrate into the land, they form what are termed gulfs, and 
Mediterranean seas. But without following it through all its windings 
and divisions, I shall simply state a few general facts. 

With regard to the depth of this body of water, no certain conclusions 
have yet been formed. Beyond a certain depth, it has hitherto been 
found unfathomable. We know, in general, that the depth of the sea 
increases gradually as we leave the shore ; but we have reason to believe 
that this increase of depth continues only to a certain distance. The 
numerous islands scattered everywhere through the ocean demonstrate 
that the bottom of the waters, so far from uniformly sinking, sometimes 
rises into lofty mountains. It is highly probable that the depth of the 
sea is somewhat in proportion to the elevation of the land ; for there is 
some reason to conclude, that the present bed of the ocean formed the 
inhabited part of the ancient world previous to the general deluge, and 
that we are now occupying the bed of the former ocean ; and, if so, its 
greatest depth will not exceed four or five miles ; for there is no moun- 
tain that rises higher above the level of the sea. But the sea has never 
been actually sounded to a greater depth than a mile and sixty-six feet. 
Along the coast its depth has always been found proportionate to the 
height of the shore : where the coast is high and mountainous, the sea 
that washes it is deep ; but where the coast is low, the water is shallow. 
To calculate the quantity of water it contains, we must therefore suppose 
a medium depth. If we reckon its average depth at two miles, it will con- 
tain two hundred and ninety-six millions of cubical miles of water. We 
shall have a more specific idea of this enormous mass of water, if we con- 
sider that it is sufficient to cover the whole globe to the height of more 
than eight thousand feet ; and if this water were reduced to one spherical 
mass, it would form a globe of more than eight hundred miles in diameter. 

With regard to its bottom. As the sea covers so great a portion of 
the globe, we should, no doubt, by exploring its interior, discover a vast 
number of interesting objects. So far as the bed of the ocean has been 
2u2 



534 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

explored, it is found to bear a great resemblance to the surface of the 
dry land ; being, like it, full of plains, caverns, rocks, and mountains, 
some of which are abrupt and almost perpendicular, while others rise 
with a gentle acclivity, and sometimes tower above the water, and form 
islands. The materials, too, which compose the bottom of the sea are 
the same which form the basis of the dry land. It also resembles the 
land in another remarkable particular; many fresh springs and even 
rivers rise out of it : an instance of which occurs near Gor, on the west- 
ern coast of Hindostan, and in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from 
Marseilles. The sea sometimes assumes different colours. The materials 
which compose its bottom, cause it to reflect different hues in different 
places ; and its appearance is also affected by the winds and the sun, 
while the clouds that pass over it communicate all the varied and fleeting 
colours. /When the sun shines, it is green ; when he gleams through a 
fog, it is yellow ; near the poles it is black ; while in the torrid zone, its 
colour is often brown ; and, on certain occasions, it assumes a luminous 
appearance, as if sparkling with fire. 

The ocean has three kinds of motion. The first is that undulation 
which is produced by the wind, and which is entirely confined to its sur- 
face. It is now ascertained, that this motion can be destroyed, and its 
surface rendered smooth, by throwing oil upon its waves. The second 
motion is that continual tendency which the whole water in the sea has 
towards the west, which is greater near the equator than towards the 
poles. It begins on the west side, of America, where it is moderate ; 
but, as the waters advance westward, their motion is accelerated ; and 
after having traversed the globe, they return, and strike with great vio- 
lence on the eastern shore of America. Being stopped by that continent, 
they rush with impetuosity into the G-ulf of Mexico, thence they proceed 
along the coast of North America till they come to the south side of 
Newfoundland, when they turn off and run down through the 'V\''estem 
Isles. This motion is, most probably, owing to the diurnal revolution of 
the earth on its axis, which is in a direction contrary to the motion of the 
sea. The third motion of the sea is the tide, which is a regular swell 
of the ocean every twelve hours. This motion is now ascertained to be 
owing to the attractive influence of the moon, and also partly to that of 
the sun. There is always a flux and reflux at the same time in two 
parts of the globe, and these are opposite to each other ; so that when our 
antipodes have high water, we have the same. When the attractive 
powers of the sun and moon act in the same direction, which happens 
at the time of new and full moon, we have the highest or spring-tides ; 
but when their attraction is opposed to each other, which happens at 
the quarters, we have the lowest or neap-tides. 

Such is the ocean — a most stupendous scene of omnipotence, which 
forms the most magnificent feature of the globe we inhabit. When we 
stand on the seashore, and cast our eyes over the expanse of its waters, 
till the sky and the waves seem to mingle, all that the eye can take in 
one survey is but an inconsiderable speck, less than the one hundred 
thousandth part of the whole of this vast abyss. If every drop of water 
can be divided into twenty-six millions of distinct parts, as some philo- 



JEFFERSON'S RESIDENCE. 535 

sopliers tave demonstrated, what an immense assemblage of watery par- 
ticles must be contained in the unfathomable caverns of the ocean ! 
Here the powers of calculation are completely set at defiance ; and an 
image of infinity, immensity, and endless duration is presented to the 
mind. This mighty expanse of waters is the grand reservoir of nature 
and the source of evaporation, which enriches the earth with fertility 
and verdure. Every cloud which floats in the atmosphere, and every 
fountain, and rivulet, and flowing stream, are indebted to this inexhaust- 
ible source for those watery treasures which they distribute through every 
region of the land. In fine, whether we consider the ocean as rearing 
its tremendous billows in the midst of the tempest, or as stretched out 
into a smooth expanse- — whether we consider its immeasurable extent, 
its mighty movements, or the innumerable beings which glide through 
its rolling waves — we cannot but be struck with astonishment at the 
grandeur of the Omnipotent Being who holds its waters " in the hollow 
of his hand," and who has said to its foaming surges, ''Hitherto shalt 
thou come, and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." 



JEFFERSON'S RESIDENCE. 

BY WIBT. 

■ The mansion-house at Monticello was built and furnished in the days 
of his prosperity. In its dimensions, its architecture, its arrangements, 
and ornaments, it is such a one as becomes the character and fortune of 
the man. It stands upon an elliptic plain, formed by cutting down the 
apex of a mountain 3 and, on the west, stretching away to the north and 
the south, it commands a view of the Blue Ridge for a hundred and fifty 
miles, and brings under the eye one of the boldest and most beautiful 
horizons in the world ; while on the east it presents an extent of prospect 
bounded only by the spherical form of the earth, in which nature seems 
to sleep in eternal repose, as if to form one of her finest contrasts with 
the rude and rolling grandeur of the west. In the wide prospect, and 
scattered to the north and south, are several detached mountains, which 
contribute to animate and diversify this enchanting landscape, among 
them, to the south, Willis's mountain, which is so interestingly depicted 
in his notes. From this summit the philosopher was wont to enjoy that 
spectacle, among the sublimest of nature's operations, the looming of the 
distant mountains ; and to watch the motions of the planets, and the 
greater revolutions of the celestial sphere. From this summit too the 
patriot could look down with uninterrupted vision upon the wide expanse 
of the world around, for which he considered himself born ; and upward 
to the open and vaulted heavens, which he seemed to approach, as if to 
keep him continually in mind of his high responsibility. It is a prospect 
in which you see and feel at once that nothing mean or little could live. 
It is a scene fit to nourish those grand and high-souled principles which 
formed the elements of his character, and was a most noble and appro- 
priate post for such a sentinel over the rights and liberties of man. 



536 PIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 



A BROTHER'S LOVE. 

There is something transcendently virtuous in the affection of a high- 
hearted brother towards his gentle, amiable sister. He can feel , 
unbounded admiration for her beauty — he can appreciate and applaud 
the kindness which she bestows on himself — he can press her bright lips 
and her fair forehead, and still feel that she is unpolluted ; he can watch 
the blush steal over her features with pleasure when he tells her of her 
innocent follies, and he can clasp her to his bosom in consolation when 
the tears gush from her overloaded heart. With woman there is a feel- 
ing of pride mingled with the regard which she has for her brother. She 
looks upon him as one fitted to brave the tempest of the world, as one 
to whose arm of protection she can fly for shelter when she is stricken by 
sorrow, wronged, or oppressed, as one whose honour is connected with her 
own, and who durst not see her insulted with impunity. He is to her 
as the oak is to the vine, and, though she may fear all others of mankind, 
she is secure and confident in the love and countenance of her brother. 
Nothing affords man such satisfaction, and nothing entwines a sister so 
affectionately among his sympathies and his interests, as a profound 
reliance upon her virtue, and a strong conviction of her diffidence and 
delicacy. As these two latter qualities are far the most delicious quali- 
ties of a beautiful female, so are they the strongest spells for enticing 
away the affections of the other sex. A female without delicacy is a 
woman without principle ; and as an innate and shrinking perception of 
virtue is the true characteristic of a pure-hearted creature, so it is the 
most infallible bond of union between hearts that truly beat in response 
to each other. There is more tenderness in the disposition of woman 
than man ; but the affection of a brother is full of the purest and most 
generous impulses ; it cannot be quenched by aught but indelicacy and 
unworthiness, and it will outlive a thousand selfish and sordid attach- 
ments. Byron, in his tragedy of Cain, has beautifully exemplified the 
sincerity of a brother's regard for his sister. Some of the sentiments 
which he places in the mouth of the first murderer, while addressing 
Adah, the partner of his earliest joys, are full of delicate, yet passionate 
affection. Cain's affection for his children is there also admirably 
delineated. When conversing with his youthful bride on the sorrows of 
man's fallen condition, how eloquently he breaks out — 

" My little Enoch and his lisping sister ! 
Could I but dream them hapjpy ! I would half 
Forget" — 

his own unfathomable fate. Mrs. Hemans has also some noble passages 
on this subject, as has Miss Baillie in the drama of the Bride. A 
deep-rooted regard for a gentle creature born of the same parents with 
ourselves is certainly one of the noblest feelings of our nature ; and were 
every other feeling of the human bosom dead save this, there would still 
a bright hope remain that the fountain of virtue and principle was not 
yet sealed. 



FEATURES OF AMERICAN 'SCEjSTERT. 537 



MAEINER'S COMPASS. 

It is somewliat uncertain at what precise period this noble discovery 
was made ; but it appears pretty evident, that the mariner's compass 
was not commonly used in navigation before the year 1420, or only a 
few years before the invention of printing. The loadstone, in all ages, 
was known to have the property of attracting iron ; but its tendency to 
point towards the north and south seem to have been unnoticed till the 
beginning of the twelfth century. About that time some curious persons 
seem to have amused themselves by making to swim, in a basin of water, 
a loadstone suspended to a piece of cork; and to have remarked, that, 
when left at liberty, one of its extremities pointed to the north. They had 
also remarked, that, when a piece of iron is rubbed against the loadstone, 
it acquires also the property of turning towards the north, and of attract- 
ing needles and filings of iron. From one experiment to another, they 
proceeded to lay a needle, touched with the magnet, on two small bits 
of straw floating on the water, and to observe that the needle invariably 
turned its point towards the north. The first use they seem to have 
made of these experiments was, to impose upon simple people by the 
appearance of magic. For example, a hollow swan, or the figure of a 
mermaid, was made to swim in a basin of water, and to follow a knife 
with a bit of bread upon its point which had been previously rubbed 
upon the loadstone. The experimenter convinced them of his power, 
by commanding, in this way, a needle laid on the surface of the water 
to turn its point from north to the east, or in any other direction. But 
some geniuses, of more sublime or reflective powers of mind, seizing 
upon these hints, at last applied these experiments to the wants of navi- 
gation, and constructed an instrument by the help of which the mariner 
can now direct his course to distant lands through the pathless ocean. 



FEATURES OF AMEPJCAN SCENERY. 

The numerous waterfalls, the enchanting beauty of Lake George and 
its pellucid flood, of Lake Champlain and the lesser lakes, aiford many 
objects of the most picturesque character ; while the inland seas, from 
Superior to Ontario, and that astounding cataract, whose roar would hardly 
be increased by the united murmurs of all the cascades of Europe, are 
calculated to inspire vast and sublime conceptions. The efiects, too, of 
our climate, composed of a Siberian winter and an Italian summer, fur- 
nish new and peculiar objects for description. The circumstances of 
remote regions are here blended, and strikingly opposite appearances 
witnessed in the same spot at different seasons of the year. In our win- 
tei's, we have the sun at the same altitudes as in Italy, shining on an 
unlimited surface of snow, which can only be found in the higher lati- 
tudes of Europe, where the sun in the winter rises little above the hori- 



538 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

zon. The dazzling brilliance of a winter's day and a moonliglit night 
in an atmosphere astonishingly clear and frosty, when the utmost splen- 
dour of the sky is reflected from a surface of spotless white, attended 
with the most excessive cold, is peculiar to the northern part of the 
United States. What, too, can surpass the celestial purity and trans- 
parency of the atmosphere in a fine autumnal day, when our vision and 
our thought seem carried to the third heaven ; the gorgeous magnificence 
of the close, when the sun sinks from our view, surrounded with various 
masses of clouds, fringed with gold and purple, and reflecting, in eva- 
nescent tints, all the hues of the rainbow ! 



THE DYINa HINDOO. 



There are few things more shocking to European eyes than the 
publicity of death-bed scenes in India, and the apathetical indifference 
displayed by the Hindoos while attending the expiring moments of 
their nearest relatives or friends. Frequently only a few yards from a 
crowded ghaut thronged by the inhabitants of some neighbouring village, 
who are laughing, singing, and following their ordinary occupations with 
the utmost gayety, a dying person may be seen stretched upon a cliarpoy 
(bed stead) close to the river's brink, surrounded by a group of three or 
four individuals, who look upon the sufferer without the slightest ap- 
pearance of interest. As soon as the breath has left the body, the corpse 
is thrown into the river, death being often precipitated by stuffing the 
mouth and nostrils with mud. Strangers, attracted by some superb lotus 
floating down the stream, are disgusted by the sight of a dead body 
rapidly descending with the tide, the ghastly head appearing above the 
surface of the water. Every Hindoo is anxious to draw his last sigh on 
the banks of the Ganges, or some equally sacred stream flowing into its 
holy waters ; the relatives therefore of expiring persons fulfil the last 
offices of humanity in the manner most desirable to them by bringing a 
dying friend to the edge of the river, and consigning the body, when 
the vital spark has fled, to the hallowed stream. The corpse of a rich 
Hindoo is burned upon a funeral pile ; but as wood is dear, the poorer 
classes either dispense with it entirely, or merely scorch the flesh previ- 
ously to launching it into the river. — Mm Eoherts's Oriental Sketclies. 



The Death of a Wife. — The death of a man's wife is like cutting 
down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Hence- 
forth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitudes, falls upon the 
old widower's heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield 
him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand was 
withered, as if one wing of his eagle was broken, and every movement that 
he made brought him to the ground. His eyes are dimmed and glassy, 
and when the film of death falls over him, he misses those accustomed 
tones which might have smoothed his passage to the grave. — Lamartine. 



EARLY AND LATTER DAYS OF CROMWELL. 539 



EARLY AND LATTER DAYS OF CROMWELL. 

Oliver Cromwell — to briefly recapitulate all that history has told 
us of trustworthy of his youth and early manhood — was the son of Mr. 
Robert Cromwell, a gentleman of good family and moderate means, 
settled at Huntingdon — a brewer there, some say, but without much 
likelihood of truth. The Cavaliers used, we know, to call Harrison a 
butcher; for the excellent reason that his father was a large grazing 
farmer. Be this, however, as it may, Oliver, since his father's death, 
managed his mother's business, whatever it was, whether farming or 
brewing, and succeeded in doing so reasonably well. He had also re- 
ceived a good education, or, at all events, what in those days passed for 
one ; for we find he was entered of Susses College, Cambridge, on the 
very day, it is not uninteresting to remark, that Shaksj)eare died ! The 
stories told of the dissoluteness of Oliver's youth may equally, with the 
prophetic marvels which, after he had achieved greatness, were said to 
have marked his infancy and boyhood, be dismissed with almost entire 
incredulity. He was related to Hampden by marriage only, having 
espoused, on the 22d of August, 1620, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John 
Bourchier, a kinsman of the anciently-descended family of Buckingham- 
shire. Cromwell appears to have been a thoroughly sincere and fervidly 
pious man ; and well would it have been had the charity of his religious 
zeal equalled its earnestness and fervour. An excellent neighbour too, 
helpful to all who needed help, and a zealous protector of the Noncon- 
forming lecturers, whom Laud was hunting and persecuting through the 
country; a man, in short, fitted for the perilous and anxious time; 
watchful and patient of passing events; eagle-visioned to the dawnings 
of the future ; and, to use Milton's expression, ^' nourishing his great 
soul in silence,'^ while calmly but mournfully awaiting the moment when 
the contest, now thickening, should be removed to a more decisive arena 
than that of the Commons' House, and men of bold deeds more than 
of eloquent words would be required. 

>i; >)< ^ jjc ^ * 

The once lion-hearted man, betrayed from the high path he had once 
so firmly trod by the enticements of power, and vainly struggling in the 
mires of intrigue and fair-seeming falsehood, visibly declined in mind 
and body ; became even personally afraid of the miserable Royalists 
who threatened him with private assassination. Cromwell afraid ! 
What miracle is this ? No miracle, reader ! True courage dwells not 
with usurping violence; and how could he be otherwise than afraid as 
the names of Eliot, Hampden, gleamed through his troubled brain, and 
he felt that he had betrayed the great cause for which they died ; brought 
it in the eyes of the unreflecting into derision and contempt? Albeit 
as the Lord Protector, after patient watching by the lingering deathbed 
of his favourite daughter, the Lady Elizabeth Claypole, came himself 
visibly within the sbadow of the tomb, his old spiritual strength seemed 
to return again. The world with its vain shows was vanishing, and as 



540 FIELDS'S SCRAP-BOOK. 

it rolled away, the heaven of his youth and healthy manhood flashed, 
with its awful and unspeakable splendours, light upon his soul. They 
read to him, at his own request, a passage of St. Paul to the Philippians — 
" Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever 
state I am therewith to be content. I can do all things through Christ 
who strengtheneth me." As these words fell upon his ear, he ejaculated 
in broken accents, " This scripture did once save my life when my eldest 
son — died ; which went as a dagger to my heart ; indeed it did." He 
alluded to his son Oliver, slain in the civil war, but at what place or 
under what circumstances remains unascertained. He is supposed to 
have served in Harrison's troop. The day before the Protector died, 
when his wife and children were weeping round his bed, he exclaimed, 
speaking of the Covenant of Grod with man — " It is holy and true — it is 
holy and true — it is holy and true ! Who made it holy and true ? The 
Mediator of the Covenant ! The Covenant is one. And even if I do 
not. He remains faithful. Love not the world," he continued, addressing 
his family : " no, my children, live like Christians. I leave you the 
Covenant to feed upon." " Yea, my true one," adds Mr. Carlyle, com- 
menting on this scene. " Even so : the Covenant, and the eternal soul 
of Covenants remains sure to all the faithful: deeper than the founda- 
tions of this world — earlier than they — more lasting than they." 

The tempest of the night of the 2d of September, 1658, extending 
to the shores of the Mediterranean, and strewing land and sea with 
wreck, was the appropriate death-dirge of that great, stormy being; 
and on the morrow — his fortunate day, the 3d of September — the mighty, 
reverential, erring — for he was human — spirit passed from earth, its last 
aspiration a prayer for the country he had strongly loved and bravely 
served. 



INDEX. 



Page 

Absent-minded Philosopher 527 

Acropolis, The 624 

Active Benevolence 620 

Affection's Tear 200 

Alamo, The Babe of the 182 

Alpine Horn 392 

Alpine Scenery 476 

Ambition blasted 269 

America, Discovery of, by Columbus... 437 

American and British Officers 396 

American Eagle, The 82 

American Liberty i 329 

American Revolution, Battles of the.... 207 

American Scenery, Features of. 637 

An Angel in the Clouds 239 

Anecdotes, 68, 74, 96, 133, 207, 236, 346 

348, 624 
Anecdotes of "Washington and Adams.. 297 

Angel's Wing, The 239 

Ant and the Cricket 158 

Anxious Wife, The 103 

Arnold, General 127 

Arnold, Attempt to take 129 

Archimedes 479 

Army Bill, Extract from Mr. Clay's 

Speech on the 358 

Army Scenes 523 

Astronomical Discoveries, Grandeur of 275 
Atheism 188 

Babylon, Ancient 110 

Be gentle with thy Wife 188 

Be kind to each other 525 

Beau Brummell 503, 506 

Beautiful Extract 618 

Bible, The 343 

Birds, Migration of. 343 

Blennerhassett's Island and Burr's Con- 
spiracy 376 

BohonXJpas Tree, The 119 

Bonaparte, Portrait of. 518 

British Soldier, Singular Adventure of 84 

Broken Heart, The 459 

Broken-Hearted, The 61 

Brother, come home 214 

Brother's Love 536 

Bunker Hill Monument, On laying the 

Corner-stone of. 256 

Burning of the Richmond Theatre 99 

Cass, of Mich., Remarks of, on the Value 

of the Union 180 

Christ on Calvary 330 

Christianity in the Hour of Death 291 

Circumstautial Evidence 118 



Page 
Clay, Remarks of, on the Union of the 

States 174, 316 

Clayton's Remarks on the American 

Union 316 

Clemens, of Ala., Remarks of, at a pub- 
lic meeting 179 

Closing Scenes of Life 210 

Coat of Mail, The 218 

Colonel Croghan 211 

Comforts of Human Life 270 

Constitution and Guerriere 354 

Cordilleras, The 505 

Creation, Immensity of 271 

Crockett,' On the Death of Colonel 42 

Cromwell, Early and Latter Days of..... 539 

Crossing the Delaware 344 

Curious Historical Eact 377 

Damsel of Peru, The 373 

Daniel Boone 453 

Day of Judgment 147, 349 

De Kalb 322 

Dead, The 401 

Dead Trumpeter, The 378 

Death, Essay on! 237 

Death of a "Wife 53S 

Death, Reflections on 289 

Death, Solemnity of. 408 

Dearest Love, believe me 386 

Decatur, Commodore , 339 

Deity, The 69 

Destiny of this Republic 186 

Dignity of the Human Mind 113 

Dirge 337 

-Disappointment 510 

Dome of the Capitol, A Night on the.... 387 

Domestic Happiness 273 

Dreadful Dragon, The 60 

Dreadful Worm, A 267 

Dream of Love 257 

Drunkard's Soliloquy, The 102 

Duelling 474 

Dying Christian, The 144 

Dj'ing Hindoo, The 633 

Elegant Extracts 137 

Elijah's Interview 392 

Eloquent Extract 475 

Emblem of Human Life, a River 143 

Emmett, Last Words of 319 

Emmett, Parting Interview with 197 

Enchanted Gun, The Ill 

End of Great Men, The 152 

Enjoyment of Life 391 

Enormous Cannon. 441 

541 



542 



INDEX. 



Page 

Epitaphs 273, 400, 404, 422, 456 

Eternal Hope 292 

Eternity of God 427 

Eve of Battle, Tiie 70 

Evening 101 

Evening Music at Sea 4S4 

Everard Graham 190 

Excerpts 400 

Exile of Seio, The 139, 234 

Exile, The 144 

Exile's Dream 604 

Express, The 432 

Fairy's Fimeral 489 

Faithful Soldier 326 

Fame 290 

Fare Thee Well 436 

Farmer, The 246 

Female Faith 50 

Female Heart, The 199 

Female Heroism 448 

Female Influence 522 

Female Intrepidity 270 

Fidelity 326 

Fields, of Texas, Remarks of, on the 

Santa Fe Question 176 

Filial Duty 156 

Filial Virtue illustrated 97 

First Shot, The 108 

First Battle near New Orleans 405 

Flag of the United States 364 

Flower Forget-me-not 524 

Forget-me-not 60, 95 

Fortitude 345 

Fountain of Marah, The 311 

Fragment 94 

Fragment, after the manner of Ossian 511 

Franklin 46 

Franklin's Toast 94 

Friend, Character of a True 63 

Friends of my Youth 526 

Friends, The 498 

Fulton and the First Steamboat 521 

Funeral Hymn 60 

Gambler, The 63 

Gambling 89,109 

Gaspirinithe Bandit 495 

Genius of Columbia 324 

God, Eternity of 427 

God, Existence of 248 

God, Majesty of 347 

God sees me 216 

Good Husbands make good Wives 353 

Good-nature 296 

Grave of the Year 415 

Grave, The 81 

Great Plague in the Fourteenth Cen- 
tury 468 

Greek Song 256 

Greek Revolution, Clay's Remarks on 

the 411 

Greek Revolution, Webster's Speech 

on the 410 



Page 
Greeks, Eloquent Appeal in favour of 

the 412 

Greene, Major-General 514 

Guns 149 

Halley and Sir Isaac Newton 517 

Hamilton, General 268 

Hamilton, Speech on the Death of 426 

Happiness 422 

Happiness and Virtue 152 

Happiness of Heaven 260 

Have I come to this ? 410 

Hazlewood Family, The 219 

Henry and Caroline 70 

Hero'of the Plague 429 

Hill of Life, The 530 

Home 59,375 

Hope 189,486 

Horrors of Battle 279 

Horry, Anecdote of Colonel 323 

Hours, The 369 

How to Live 428 

How to make a good Wife unhappy ... 527 

Human Countenance, The 480 

Human Life 329 

Hungarian Horse-dealer, The 134 

Hungarian Exiles, The 57 

Huntei', of Va., Remarks of, in favour 

of the Union 169 

Husband, Address to a 387 

Ityperion, Extract from 249 

I have seen an end of all Perfection 58 

Imagination 430 

Indian, The Last 69 

Indians 391 

Infancy 213 

Infant's Sleep 49 

Ingenious Device 245 

Intemperate Father 478 

Interest, Difference between Simple and 

Compound 431 

Is there a God? 49 

Jackdaw, The 61 

Jackson's Victory at New Orleans 403 

Jefl'erson, Eulogium on 345 

Jefferson, Residence of 535 

Jefferson, The Grave of. 356 

Jephthah's rash Vow 128 

Jerusalem, The Closing Scene in the 

Fall of. 47 

Jesus Christ, A Description of the 

Person of 435 

JoeHaynes, the Comedian 229 

John Adams, Anecdote of. 156 

John Adams, Death of 261 

John Adams, Patriotism and Elo- 
quence of. 153 

John Randolph 161 

Joshua S. Johnson, of Texas, Remarks 

on the Santa Fe Question 175 

Jordan 395 

Judea 435 



INDEX. 



543 



Page 
Kaufman, of Texas, Remarks of, in 

favour of the Union 172 

Kentucky Pioneer, Anecdote of a 253 

Lafayette's First Visit to America 406 

Lafitte, the Baratarian Chief. , 7 

Last Shot 421 

Let's sit down and talk together 4S1 

Liberty and Revolutions 75 

Liberty and Union 362 

Life 464 

Lightning Rods 480 

Lines to President Washington on his 

Birth-day, Peb. 22, 1792 158 

Lion Fight, A 201 

Look Aloft 415 

Love 88 

Love's immortal Wreath 82 

Magnanimity, True Ill 

Major Andre 232 

Manners ., 414 

Mariner's Compass 537 

Marriage Ceremony 261 

Marriage, Reflections on 402 

Marshal Ney's Death-Scene 41 

Mary to her false Lover 460 

Maternal Affection 236, 399 

Maternal Heroism 157 

Maternal Influence 338 

Maternal Love 482 

Matrimony, Bliss of. 457 

Maxims, 49, 59, 66, 74, 86, 87, 101, 115, 145 
152, 160, 208, 251, 252, 336, 473, 517 

Maxims for Married Ladies 465 

May you die among your Kindred 506 

McDowell, of Va., Remarks of, in fa- 
vour of the Union 173 

Mechanic, The 274 

Memorj^ 293, 357 

Midnight Reflection 420 

Mier Prisoner's Lament 214 

Mind, Independent Existence of 496 

Mirror of Life 260 

Miser outwitted 431 

Mississippi Valley 482 

Mistakes 196 

Mocking Bird, The 217 

Monterey, Scenes at 43 

Mother, The..; 101 

Mount Carmel 519 

Mr. Ogilvie 233 

My Home is in the World 42 

My Mother 291 

My Mother's Grave 67 

Name in the Sand 256 

Natural History, Study of 608 

Newspapers 465 

Night on the Dome of the Capitol 387 

Numljer of Deaths in a Year 278 

Number of Stars 425 

Ocean, The 533 



Ocean, The Majesty of the 90 

Ode 481 

On laying the Corner-stone of Bunker 

Hill Monument 256 

On some Snow that melted on a Lady's 

Breast 228 

Ostentatious Epitaphs 338 

Our Home is everywhere 95 

Our Whole Country 467 

Our William 504 

Parsons, Anecdote of Judge 348 

Passage of the Potomac through the 

Blue Ridge... 274 

Patrick Henry, Eloquence of... ..83, 252, 424 

Peabody's Leap 203 

Pestilence, The 126 

Pestilence, History of the 276 

Picture of Life 146 

Piety 520 

Planets, Motion of the 416 

Poinsett's Remarks made in Charles- 
ton during the Nullification Excite- 
ment 317 

Practical Science 487 

Prairies, Burning of the 465 

Presidential Inauguration 169 

President's Reception at New York... 490 
Putnam, General 235 

Recollections of Infancy 528 

Redbank, Visit to 419 

Religion 102, 294 

Religious Life 255 

Remarks of Rives on the Union 314 

Remember Me 373 

Reply to Atheism 418 

Retrospection 430 

Resignation 418 

Revolutionary Anecdotes 398, 466 

Revolutionary Reminiscence 341 

Richmond Theatre, Burning of the 99 

Rose, The 68,132 

Rose-bud, The 87 

Rousseau's Opinion of the Bible and its 

Author 288 

Running for Life 208 

Sacred Scriptures, Moral and Intel- 
lectual EiSoacy of the 243 

Sadness 353 

Sam Houston, Remarks of, in favour of 

the Union 161 

Sand-storm in the Desert 451 

Sarah Curran, Some Passages in the 

History of. 281 

Saturday Night 319 

Savage, of Tenn., Remarks of> on behalf 

ofthe Union 173 

Sea-elephant 398 

Sea, The 145 

Seaside Sketch 479 

Self-respect 414 

Sheridan 434 



544 



INDEX. 



Page 

Singular Incident... S18 

Sister's Love, A 62 

Sisters andMothers 88 

Sleep 325 

Small-pox, Ancient Mode of attempt- 
ing to cure the 466 

Socrates died like a Philosopher, but 

Jesus Christ like a God 240 

Soldier's Funeral 346 

South Carolina 312 

Sporting with Female Affections 507 

Spring.. 458 

Spunk 236 

Spurzheim, Ode sung at the Funeral of 337 

Stanzas 95 

Stanzas to Her who can best under- 
stand them 467 

Stars, The 146 

Stewart, of Texas, Remarks of, against 

Disunion 174 

Sunday-schools 442 

Sunrise of the Soul 290 

Sunset 336 

Sunset of Battle 198 

Suspicion 327 

The Devoted 272 

The Fashion of this World passeth away 286 

The Great Day 349 

The Righteous never forsaken 150 

The River. 481 

The Texas Ranger 200 

The Ties of Love 189 

The Tiger's Cave 120 

The Treacherous Hosts 210 

The "Waves have worn the solid Rock 188 

There is a God 327 

They bore him from the Waters 200 

Thi-iUing Sketch 116 

Telescope, Microscope, the InseetWorld 138 
Temperance, Extract from an Address 

on 262 

Time 235,402 

Time, The Ruins of. 53 

'Tis Sweet to Think 290 

To Ellen 364 

To Mary 239 

To my Mother 112 

To the Departed 415 

To the Sound of a distant Bell 144 

To W. M. G. on the Death of his amia- 
ble Sister 50 

Transparency of the Sea 409 

Traveller in Europe, Extracts from the 

Private Letters of a late 350 



Page 

Treasures of the Deep 456 

Trenton, The Battle of. 272, 320 

Truth is Power 328 

Twilight 296 

Union, Remarks in favour of preserv- 
ing the 161, 312 

Union, Value of the 318 

Valediction to the Young Ladies of the 

Knoxville Female Academy 365 

Valley of Jehoshaphat 375 

Vanity of Pride 393 

Verses by Robert Burns 525 

Village Blacksmith 525 

Virgin Heart, A , 96 

Virginia, Scene in 44 

Virtue 357,478 

Visit to a Mad-house 489 

Voice from Mount Vernon 436 



Wall of China, The Great 

Wanderer's Return 

War 

War, Folly of 

War of the Revolution advocated 

Warren's Address to the American Sol- 
diers 

Washington 206, 238, 247, 

Washington's Address to the Army.... 

Washington and Adams 

Washington and Admiral Vernon 

Washington, Death of 

Washington's Dirge 

Washington's Love for his Mother 

Webster, Remarks of, in favour of the 
Union 164, 168, 

Webster's Address at the Celebration 

• of the Centennial Birthday of 

Washington 

What is Life? , 

What is that, Mothfer ? 

What of the Times? 

White-headed or Bald Eagle 

Wife, The 450, 

Wild Horses 

Wilson, of Texas, Remarks on the Santa 
Fe Question 

Woman... 52, 89, 125, 146, 207,213,246, 

Woman, Tomb of a 

Woodman, spare that Tree 

World to Come, The 



214 

295 
409 
424 

450 
301 
423 
297 
300 
299 
158 
326 

312 



301 

311 

50 

379 

215 

488 
417 

177 
374 
325 
188 
112 



Yankee Doodle, Origin of 452 

Youthful Friendships 310 



THE END. 



Stereotyped by L. Johnson & Co. 
Philadelphia. 



31|77-1 



